.......Because reality is just starting to set in ! The result v Salford was disappointing - but - not totally surprising... I will accept that Gills showed good commitment & effort in the 2nd half -- and on another day would have at least taken a point from the game...... ....The first half, however, was very poor. The defending - starting with Turner, was shocking. The midfield was non-existent... The forwards - great athletes - but - lack the quality to find the goal on anything like a frequent basis... And this has been most evident in recent matches. Statistically, Gills are creating many chances to score in each game - but failing to do so................ Some people will say that we've been unlucky. To a certain extent this is true - but- you cannot rely on luck all of the time... There has to be sufficient quality to overcome the occasional misfortune....... The Gills forwards do not have sufficient quality ! The same lack of quality obviously exists in the defenders.....especially when Gills seem to be able to lose to teams at the bottom of the division - so many times.......................And things will only get worse when we sell Gale (( I would bet in January )). Gale definitely has sufficient and consistent quality to follow in the footsteps of Steve Bruce...... The match v Salford showed how much we miss Gale in the defence. I said the midfield were non existent...Well - you don't need a midfield if all you're going to do is play hoofball..... So we may as well put 4 or 5 upfront - it might provide plenty of drama - as per yesterday's 2nd half display - but - would any of them be able to find the net (( when, on at least a couple of occasions it seemed easier to score than to miss ! ))............. I might be doing the midfielders a slight injustice - because, against Salford, the formation was wrong - you cannot allow the opposition to outnumber your midfield... It was no wonder that Salford were able to overrun The Gills. The 'drama' of yesterday's game - and a similar example v Cheltenham, or the injustice dished out by incompetent referees, shouldn't fool Gills fans into thinking that we're just unlucky.....This season, I am pleased, (( for the most part )), with the commitment and effort - but there is a distinct lack of quality..... and - despite ME despairing of the referees, they're not all giving things against the Gills.... At Bromley we got a dodgy penalty to salvage a point.... Yesterday, Coleman should have been shown a 2nd yellow for a 'worthy' foul.... and I thought that our penalty was as soft as the one against Gale last week. In the past, I have stated that I only ever expect commitment & effort from the squad.... I am pleased that I am seeing some this season - but - I am realistic enough to understand why Gills are in Division 4... because we don't have sufficient and consistent quality to be anywhere else.
I think we are realistic mate and everyone, including myself who don't attend games often these days, know that this is not an auto promotion winning side. However, L2 generally this season is poor and that's where my first statement gets turned on it's head. Nearly 1/3rd of the season is gone and we are only 4 points off top spot. Salford are 3rd and they've already lost 5 games this season, the majority of the others have lost 4. Someone eventually will show some consistency - maybe the January window being the difference. It might even come down to previous lessons, Walsall my example of that, it looked nailed on one point last season that they would run away as Champions, but here they are still top of L2 having gone no where, and that team will not want to repeat that horrible feeling of losing out again. I don't temd to focus so much on play-offs because that is just a lottery, at this stage it has to be autos or nowt. So at the moment I'll take that 4 point gap, but you hit on one thing, the goal socring because if this comes down to GD we could lose out, and Notts County and MK lead the way on that, two very experienced clubs in the promotion stakes. This is where we turn to old heads, Gareth Ainsworth has certainly got the experience, and so has Dack, their imput is vital. I don't blame Jack Turner for yesterday although I wasn't there, no sub keeper is expecting to come on after only 5 mins, and I'm sure Glen would have still have preferred to have been between them sticks and for me he is our third experienced head, if we are to do it, we need him back. So a mixed bag for me, we need to do better and you are right I was one of those thinking yesterday, we've been unlucky for these last two games and I acknowledge at some point we have to make our own luck. Everyone here is a Division Four side for a reason. We could do with a Cody McDonald right now, what's Brian Yeo doing these days.
I can see the intent behind the set up, having three front men, two to win the headers and one to do the running and then having Dack behind to offer an additional choice to lay off for. Pretty attacking but exposed a huge hole between Dack and then Coleman & McKenzie where we could expect to see overloads in the midfield. Personally have no issue with Jake Turner for either goal, damage was done on the lead up to those. Turner didn't go through the warm up that a keeper would if starting the match, to then be asked to come after 90 seconds when he wouldn't have been ready is a hard ask for any keeper, regardless of where they are in the professional stakes. The bigger concern for me was Shad Ogie yesterday. His poor positioning created the first goal leaving Smith too much ground to cover which only Gale may have made up in time. The second goal for me was even worse by him, he had time to bring the ball down and make a pass, instead he decides to head towards Coleman who has his back to goal and is already under pressure from an attacking Salford player. By this point of the match we'd already seen how Salford were going to cut through us in the middle, so why on earth make sure a horrendous header like that in the first place is asking for trouble. To be truthfully honest I don't think Ogie has been up to it this season and there's a key reason for me for that and it's because he no longer has the experienced head of Ehmer alongside him. Before @alwaysright starts having a go about me wanting Max back, this isn't that at all, it's purely highlighting Shad's immaturity to stand up and take responsibility for himself. Now he's no longer having his hand held by an older head which is where he played his best football, he's looking more and more like a liability each time he plays.
