No Gillingham supporter could have been able to possibly imagine the reality of our dream start to the 2012/13 season. Every club will have its cynics and even though the Gills are sitting at the top of League Two, two points clear of Port Vale it may still have. Yet there seems to be a spring of new life in the Medway Towns, it may have taken a few incentives by the club to help people back through the turnstiles but there is a fresh breeze through Priestfield this season and it is not just coming from the open air of the Brian Moore Stand. When Martin Allen became our manager during the preseason he certainly lived up to his name of Mad Dog with the introduction of an outdoor team swim at the Strand. Something probably not as madness as it seems after all it was July. It was nothing more than different as an introduction to the new boss. He was to make us become a team, installing our own player discipline within it. Things that were to be immediately noticeably, was Martin Allen and the media were certainly not shy of one another. There appeared to be openness with the press, which the fans loved. Straight talking from a manager that donned a pair of bright red trousers for our red & white day and then was rumoured to have announced himself the best dressed man on that day. As a season ticket holder myself from the Medway Stand what was my opinion on the difference, in this our centenary season? Gone was football’s Mr Nice guy and in came a man who was not frightened of bellowing his instructions from the touchline. Gone was the week in, week out, yellow and red card syndrome or so I first thought. In came new faces that were familiar to the Martin Allen way. We could at last accurately pass a ball the width of the pitch, while maintaining a different composure. We were to see the introduction of a squad rotation system that even had me totally confused because I could no longer pick the match by match team selection in my own thoughts. Many surprises before we got to the team today, with one of my own personal favourites Paulo Gazzaniga departing for Premiership side Southampton and being replaced by Stuart Nelson. Certainly a move that had me asking questions of how Mad was our new manager and yet Nelson was to become one of the safest pair of hands you could wish for to stand between the sticks and a good bit of business was done. So here we are 20 games in and nearly half way through the season with chants ringing out from the Rainham End of ‘we are top of the league’. Saturday 1st December will also see the team travelling to League One Preston in the second round of the FA Cup, having already dispensed of another League One Side 4-0 in the earlier round. So everything is rosy. Well depends on your view of the psychology of it all. Connor Essam was sent out on loan to Luton Town and now is going to struggle to get his place back from an in form Callum Davies, along with Adam Barratt being the new rock in the back line. As for Matt Fish it is unbelievable how he has come on in his game, with a confidence I have never seen in him before. Danny Jackman has just fought his way back into the side. We recently announced making Jack Payne available while then missing the deadline signing of David Wright from Crystal Palace. This along with achieving our lowest points total in November over the four months completed since the start of the season in August, topped off by the return to MK Dons of Tom Flanagan due to injury. Certainly some mixed fortunes within those above scenarios. I wonder what players think of this rotation system and match by match varying selections. What about the coincidence of a player being substituted when they pick up a card. Furthering my questions after the Exeter game when we went into the break dominant but level at 1-1. Charlie Lee’s departure during that interval was to be replaced by Myles Weston. Then to witness a penalty save by Nelson nearing the end of the game, only to be followed by a winning Exeter goal later. What if any storm lay ahead and what of the likely appearance of a Forecast (pun intended). Every team has its slip of form during a season and the Gills are no different but with only three defeats this season and five draws, everything remains rosy in the Garden of England. Although the free will in me cannot help but glance back over my shoulder at that earlier mentioned psychology of it all just attempting to measure how much froth is dribbling from the self confessed Mad Dog and its subsequent effects on achieving our aim. I never have been fooled by human psychology and can read it better than I ever could concentrate on a book. In the meantime, there is a job to be done. I am only concerned about one season, this season. Until we have enough points to gain promotion my mind as well as my eyes will remain wide open. Then hopefully come May 2013, we will witness Monty doing a lap of honour with the team, while Mad Dog comes along and shakes the hand of every fan. No, now hang on there that would just be plain crazy but before then I just wonder what surprises await us in our Christmas crackers. Opinions are welcome...
great article brb again. No one really expected Gills to be top at this stage and now most supporters expect us to finish top. Lets just hope we can remain there. I for one would be devasted if we don't get promoted after this fantastic start. Plus points are Nelson,Fish,Barrart who have been outstanding. The rest have been good aswell and i have not got a clue what the starting line up should be. I agree partly to the rotation system when we have 3 games in 8 days but if someone has been brillant then he should not be dropped. minus points. Not many apart from Payne going on trasfer list and Essam not started yet.
brb - you have asked for opinions - so... I have been happy with most of the performances - and obviously pleased to be at the top of L2 - but I agree with gioblues regarding the rotation of players - only -if we have 3 games in 8 days ( or cup matches ) - but don't break what is not broken ! Any team is as good (or bad) as their last game ! - we cannot afford complacency. Results in November have been unspectacular and if repeated for the rest of the season will not achieve promotion. Whilst it may be difficult to criticise MA - because of the results thus far, I believe that we need to play our 'strongest' team in each game - which should allow for a more settled set of players who will be more familiar with each others style and position of play. ( that is a pretty simple psychology ) - I am not averse to change - but not just for its' sake. MA has 'fiddled' with the player selection (as is fairly natural with a new manager and large squad ) -but should, by now, know his best 11 and choose it each time. As for Monty - I hope that, next May he will defecate on the pitch - being a reminder to the fans of what has been familiar in the past and not as a statement of what exists about the team performance at the end of this season.
BRB......Good article. I don't think it is that we, the supporters, expect promotion or demand to be top. We just want it and with unbridled passion. We've had a taste of what it is like to be top and it feels great. Expectations......no (this is Gillingham FC after all) Desires......oh so many.
Football is a results busy, pure and simple. Some may say it is too early to judge as nothing is won or lost in November but so far Allen has done the business as we are sitting on top of the pile, we can't get any higher at present. Yes we are in a poor patch of form but come May if we remain where we are the month of November will fade into the statistical graveyard never to mentioned again. Football fans are fickle, at the end of October the fans were singing the praises of the team and claiming that promotion is simple a matter of time, some discussion were had whether we would gain propmotion in February or March. Now some whispers of doom and gloom are being heard around the ground, "Allen has lost it, we'll be bottom of the league come December!" I am not claiming either side are right but lets keep perspective. yes the good start of the season has raised hopes but the expectation was to win promotion and we still have half the season remaining.
At the end of the day were are now really in the midst of being able to measure what this team is really made of and how adapt a manger MA really is! Will be come out of this slump and refund our grit and determination that helped us to the great start to the season or will we continue to struggle and end up just clinging onto the promotion dream? We all know what we would like but if the recovery hasn't happened by Xmas we could be in for a long rest of the season
There is a strong tendency to over-react and frankly any other club in league 2 would love to be where we are. The first point to recognise is that for the first half a dozen games the fixture list was astonishingly easy yet Gills struggled on more than one occasion. Since then the team has had a tough series of games and might with a bit of luck have picked up a point or two more than has been achieved. So what I am saying is that an apparent decline in performances has far more to do with the quality of opposition. Things get a lot easier from Christmas onwards and most likely we will start that period still top or close to it so really there is no crisis and it is just a time to stay cool. So far as MA is concerned, he lapped up the accolades when the going was easy and he is experienced enough to see through a tougher period when fans will realise he is not quite as gifted as they thought. He would have to mess things up pretty badly to fail to achieve autopromotion and there are no signs that will happen although I think I speak for many fans in saying that we are top in spite of his rotation policy rather than because of it. Anyway he is in charge so we leave him to sort it out with our full backing and with no sense of panic.The key to success is to concentrate on getting the best out of the existing squad and avoid loan signings, they always start great and decline rapidly so that we end up far worse than not having them in the first place.
One of the major problems that a rotation system presents is that it usually requires a different style of play depending on which players are playing - there are very few positions, predominently defensive, where players can be readily interchanged. Also it is not uncommon for certain pairs of players to work better with each other, and if those pairings are broken up then each individual's value to the team effort is reduced. Of course if you're setting up a team to play in a certain way to try and nullify an opposition's strengths, or alternatively to try to expoloit their weakness, then it will probably be neccessary to use different systems, and that might open up the opportunity to use differing players depending on what you want to achieve. However whilst such changes are food and drink to Premiership sides who have the resources of scouting teams out weeks ahead of matches to assess the way future oponents play, it is not so easy for clubs with more limited resources - are videos of full L2 games available to clubs? Not having only one way of playing does make it more difficult for the opposition to prepare for games, and certainly rotation of players is part of that. Plans to play in a certain way against a certain player could be made worthless if that player isn't selected, but it does require a very versatile squad to be able to fullfil the plan, and I'm not sure that we have the range of versatility required for the degree of rotation that has been used so far. In other words, I'm quite happy to see a degree of squad rotation, but perhaps not as much as has been used so far, which might allow the players selected more competitive time understanding each other's game.
only english game i have ever been to was a cold night at gillingham when they hosted Walsall back in 1971
A warm welcome to the Gills board mustyfrog. I hope your experience back then wasn't a bad one and should you ever find yourself back this side of the world please come and see the Gills again. Priestfield has changed a bit since '71.
