Right so we play Crystal Palace tomorrow at home. According to my Palace mate they've got all of the Gordon Road stand and they filled out Dagenham's place so there should be quite a few of them. I'm going and taking a couple of mates. I will try and do bit of a write-up either late tomorrow night or on wednesday. Thought we could use this as the match thread so for the people who won't be there can check up on updates. The official site is offering up the Cover it Live service again for people wanting online commentary. Who's going tomorrow then?
Gillingham FC ‏@TheGillsFC 5m Martin says the performance of his side will change for the visit of Crystal Palace on Tuesday evening. http://ow.ly/nbHna #gills So if we get battered in this one then, does that mean we are well in trouble?
3-1 against a play off pushing championship side against a side just promoted from league 2 in a friendly is not a battering. Why are people concerned about this scoreline. Its a very normal result. Anything less than a 2 goal defeat and their fans would be wondering why. Its not a dissimilar gap to between someone like man u and say ermm aston villa or someone. If u saw a 2-1 or 3-2 u wud think fair effort via. Anything less than 2 goals is totally respectable. Yes i appreciate we didnt play well but that because tge opisition was so much harder to break down with simple passes we had to panic and use long ball ect. U cant expect much more im affraid guys
Firstly there has been and still isn't any panic. The playoff pushing side scraped survival on the final day of last season. If you were at the game on Saturday you must know that we were poor, defence, midfield, attack. None of that is panic just giving a Honest view of the day. grumpy by name, grumpy by nature, grumpy grumpy grumpy!
Well the Millwall game is all in the past now. They should hopefully be raring to go for tomorrow against Palace and put up a better performance. Will also be good to see Mad Dog put up his tactics against Ollie (holloway)
As its easier to just ask you lot. Just got back from 2 weeks in Egypt. Can we buy on the door, how much and what time? Cheers
Hello all, Can anyone who went to the Millwall game tell me roughly what the attendance was? What I'm getting to is: Is there any chance of tonight's game selling out? I'm guessing not because it's a friendly, but you never know.
Gills_Steve, I've seen no official attendance recorded for the previous Wall game. My own assumptions of it being low, are confirmed by a picture I have seen of the action and the surrounding background. I really cannot see Palace being anywhere near a sell out. Myself and another season ticket holder are not going tonight so I can only assume if you require a ticket from the office you should be more than fine. Promises of MA putting out a fine display, should see a higher attendance than Wall but with the new season now fast approaching and people thinking of the School summer holiday getaway, pennies will be sparse, especially as some have already paid out for the Wolves away game.
According to this link its going to be broadcast live on Crystal Palace Player:http://www.cpfc.co.uk/news/article/preview-gillingham-v-palace-937699.aspx Now I don't know if Gills Player will do the same or not. If you have an account with player you could try and log onto the crystal palace player to see if it works for all teams using the Player service. It may only let you log onto Gills Player but if you have the service and can't get to the game then its worth a shot trying.
Well back from the game and feeling slightly disapppinted about the result which I suppose is a good thing. First half, Palace showed they were better than us with their passing. 1-0 was probably fair going in at half time although we did make some good chances. I will say that I don't think Kedwell and Bayo should play together though, not enough pace in the attack. Second half we came charging out of the blocks and actually looked the better side. Then unfortunately Linganzi's first poor touch of the entire night and they scored from some pretty static defending/goalkeeping. As soon as that went in I turned around to my mates and said thats killed the game. And with that Palace scored again which really put the final nail in the coffin. All around though I was quite impressed with a few of a players, especially with Linganzi and Joe Martin. Whelpdale played well and Keds looked sharp. I would have liked to seen more of German too as he looks a decent prospect. Fish and Allen had poor games for me, Fish was probably due to the endless abuse he got from the Palace fans which im sure will hurt as they were the club that released him as an 18 year old. Allen drifted too much and left far too much space for Palace to utilise. RATINGS: Nelson - 6 made good saves in first half but looked bored in 2nd Fish - 5 decent first half, 2nd half CP fans got the better of him and got too sloppy Legge - 6 quiet game considering the amount of attacks they had, could have done better for 2nd goal Barrett - 6 bit more lively than Legge but didn't make any daring tackles which he normally would Martin - 8 very good game for Joe, touch was superb, caused their right side havoc all evening Allen - 4.5 Thought he was very poor tonight, passing touch and decision making was poor all night, should have been subbed at half time quite frankly Linganzi - 9 Absolutely superb, just oozed class, passing, vision and awareness was spot on all night. My mates who watch premier league regularly were highly impressed with him. Dack - 6 not much impact on the game, still a bit to eager to make a silly challenge, didn't get much time on the ball to really get forward though Whelpdale - 7 good passing, good attacking play. Showing he's better than L1, basically the Whelpdale you expect to see when you see a Gills match Kedwell - 7 looked sharp and willing to shoot, had to cover more for bayo but links well with Cody Akinfenwa - 6 played it too much in the air for him really, also his mobility along side Kedwell will be an similar issue to the Burton-Kedwell partnership we had last season Subs (of note) Cody - 6 when given the chance he made problems, didnt get the ball enough unfortunately Gregory - 6 passing was decent, nothing more of note to add German - 6 looked quick and wuld like to see more of him could be challenger to Cody Davies - 6 didn't do much but what he did, he did well coped with the Palace attackers well Well thats your lot. Butcher, Muggleton, Grant and Ngala didn't play for long enough to judge. Apologies for any typos but it was done on my phone I will say that we need another winger and a central midfielder that is more attacking minded as Gregory and Linganzi are too similar players to play together. I heard that Charlie Lee is available, might be worth a punt?
GillsPegLeg - Thanks for the write up. I've not seen any preseason friendlies and await the first home game against Colchester. However, I find everything that I am reading slightly concerning. I'm trying to gauge what positives I can derive from the various negatives. From your report it is pleasing to read that Joe Martin is continuing his form of last season. Also have we found a new prospect in Linganzi. So I pose a question Linganzi or Jack Payne? I was hoping a line up of Akinfenwa, Keds and Cody would also be awesome, yet it is not appearing that way at the moment. Burton or Bayo? Weston or Cody? What has happened to our defence on reflection are we sure losing the pitbull is the right move - personally I think it is another crazy decision to add to my collection. Although the wages indicated by some, IF true, do give me underlying acknowledgement of the situation. So despite the usual crazy words from the MadDog to make us proud of our display and fielding our strongest side...http://www.kentnews.co.uk/sport/mar...ham_fans_proud_with_palace_display_1_2292911? The paying fans witness this...http://www.croydonguardian.co.uk/sport/localsport/10567285._/? If your trying to showcase your new team line up is this really what you want to see preseason. Make all the excuses you want about Palace being a Premiership side but if the gulf in 2013 really and truly that great, then maybe best in this modern game if we remain a lower league side. I was slightly concerned when I made my normal preseason predictions, thinking maybe for once I have underestimated our possibilities for the season ahead. That underestimation has now been eroded. Let the season commence....
So having been disappointed with our performance against Millwall I thought I should compliment the team on a much improved performance against Palace. Linganzi was awesome and Martin caused Palace all sorts of problems (I hope the late injury won't be a problem) The score unfortunately reflects upon the quality of the Palace finishing rather than the couple of errors on our part, league 1 will not have finishing of that quality on a regular basis. Disappointed that MA still hasn't played Bayo and Cody (awesome when paired before) Kedwell and Bayo didn't work, one or the other won plenty of balls but there was no one running on to take advantage (strikers shouldn't be 30 yards apart)
I'll try and answer some of your questions. Jack Payne could probably play alongside Linganzi due to Jack wanting to get forward more. For the same role they are fairly even, Payne getting stuck in with more tackles and Amine having a better touch than JP. Kind of like for like in a way but we have managed to get a more than competent replacement for him. By going by the Palace match I would still have to go for Deon I'm afraid. I just feel Deon worked harder and got about the pitch better as even with the Le Touquet training camp, Bayo is still not very mobile. I also think Bayo will get charged down quicker in this league giving him less time on the ball at his feet like he could have had in L2. But I'm more than willing to have him prove me wrong. At the moment though Kedwell is ahead of the pecking order to partner Cody for me in my eyes than Bayo. To be honest I don't think the three of them would work together unless you dropped Kedwell into an attacking midfield role, I know thats what you see him as brb but I see him in the Centre Forward role with a Striker playing off of him. Cody may just get too tired working with both Keds and Bayo together and we will lose our threat through exhaustion. Weston or Cody depends on where you play them. Left midfield then Weston. Striker then Cody.
Thanks GillsPegLeg. I will just add, you are right about my views on how I see Keds positioning in a attacking midfield role. Also I would play Weston in a striker role, competition for Cody.
If Weston is a striker, then why on Earth have we signed three strikers this close-season? Surely Martin Allen must see him as a left-sided midfielder, otherwise why bring in 3 strikers? I've always thought he's best as an attack-minded left midfielder.
