Well 3 vital points today when we were second best for most of the match. Crawley must be going home wondering how they got no points. But we have also thought the same thing in our last two away matches. Strange selections today with Weston ***an and Piggot all starting. All three were pretty poor and won t expect them to start on Tuesday. Legge and Barrett were superb today with Legge being my m o m. Lets hope we can get another good result on Tuesday as points are all that matters at the moment, which should give us a bigger gap before some difficult away games and are target of over 50 points.
Having lost 3 games on the trot, today we played ***an, Weston, Piggott and won whilst keeping a clean sheet, but you think they were poor? lets hope they do play Tuesday and are equally as poor. I would guess that there was a game plan today (practiced in training) where when Crawley had the ball Hewitt dropped in to cover the right corner of our area and ***in dropped into right back, as this is the area Clarke normally looks at his most dangerous. The fact that Crawley were restricted to only 3 shots on target suggests it worked, as did the closing down of their midfield with hard work from ***an, Weston, Gregory and Hess which is why Legge only had long aerial shots to deal with and helped him earn MOM. And just to add the "on target shot" from ***an that forced a good save and corner and I don't see why he rated poor in your assessment. All the lads worked hard today and whilst not always showing skill, they did show the fighting spirit that I remember from teams of old.
Gills were thoroughly outplayed but won not for the first time this year. Man for man we are weaker than the opposition most weeks but it is hard to criticise for lack of effort and Taylor is working wonders with what he has got available. He was shrewd to manage to keep Akinfenwa fit for Tuesday as well as picking up 3 points. Piggot is no replacement for Kedwell and Akinfenwa but what other options exist? It was like watching Dimson's dwarfs again until Bayo came on. Legge well deserved his man of the match but he and Barrett as a central defence pairing remain vulnerable.
I only listened to the game today,but the first half didn`t sound great from our point of view,and Crawley had a couple of decent chances to go ahead in the first half.The second half seemed better,and they said McDonald was denied by their keeper,It seemed Crawley deserved atleast something from the game but they were wasteful.Lee came on for the second week in a row and scored again off the bench.Lee looks up for the fight and could play a big part in helping us stay up.We know he is a good player,but we have not seen it enough.Now is a great time for Lee to keep playing well with his contract up at the end of the season.Today`s win was massive as it wasn`t the best performance,but we got the luck for a change.At Oldham a few weeks ago we deserved the win and got nothing,so today`s win makes a nice change. The win puts us on 41 points,so with another home game coming up on Tuesday hopefully we can atleast get something from the game.Another win would put us not far off safety.
Great result today (and it is a results business) and whilst I hope that Taylor keeps us up this year (and succeeds where STimson failed) I would still rather watch Stimson team of small mobile players move the ball about at pace and In my opinion they would outplay this current crop at Priestfield every week.
***an was totally hopeless in the first half wasted the ball every time and did not help hewitt at all. how many times did Crawley have a man over in the first half on ***an side luckily they missed their chances. ***an did do a bit better going forward in the second half but was always going to go off for either Dack or Lee who came on and made a big difference and scored the goal.
Such a positive post as always! I struggle to see how we were totally outplayed as I mentioned in another thread it could easily have been 5-5 on another day. Yes Crawley may feel a little hard done by, the played some neat stuff at times but Jones had the majority of the saves to make. I can't think of many other games where we have been outplayed but won this season? Not sure Taylor is working wonders with what he has got either and leaving akinfenwa on The bench when he played So well last Saturday was hardly shrewd especially when was pretty poor and todays game was arguably more important than Coventry in order to build some confidence and push us away from the relegation fight. Legge and Barrett were great today but hewitt was horribly exposed time and again. I agree that ***an was very wasteful with his delivery but he and Weston at least offered some more width to our game.
I agree with you in some ways we did play some good stuff under stimson but we are definitely better overall under taylor especially away from home. I'm not sure I would want to see stuart thurgood and leroy Griffiths on the pitch again either! This was the man who got rid of Crofts as well.
I just don't understand this totally outplayed nonsense, we had 48% possession one of our better games, we had 14 shots to their 15 but 6 of ours were on target, we had 11 corners to their 9, I think I must have been at a different game to some of you.
No doubting there was an issue with Crofts that was disappointing and neither party came out of it particularly well, as for Thurgood and Griffiths they were amongst the initial recruits in his first season and were soon dispensed with after relegation. Its strange because player for player I think the current squad is probably better, but I just cant see this team playing the best teams in the league and playing them off of the park like we did that season, yet we were so dismal on the road whereas this side has got some of its best results away from home.
Grumpy-did you read the comments of the managers when you looked up the stats? Stats can be misleading in terms of controlling a game because an away team will rarely try to dominate possession even when in control of a game. Cashy-do you really think that over two important home games you would start the first one with Bayo in the opening line up? He is immensely effective if used sparingly, very sparingly if you want him to perform twice in 72 hours or (76 hours). If he had started yesterday he would have been in no fit state on Tuesday.
Wow. The first 10 minutes yesterday we were losing all the challenges in the air with header ping pong. I just kept thinking get the ball on the ground. Then when we did, crawley were slicker than us. Their finishing was atrocious, Walsh I think it was. Tubbs was none existent when he should have been slaughtering us but that could have been credit to the defence, hence Legge MOM. Drury rarely caught my attention. So we took our opportunities when they came. Lee's substitution was about one of the best moves PT has made this season but I'm bias and sit in the Lee camp. Bayo not starting was the right choice, he wouldn't have lasted an hour let alone 90 minutes, let's be realistic it was too warm for the size of his frame, I mean that in kindness, you trying running carrying the extra stones of BMO muscle. Hessy excellent display, where's Lenny when i need him lol. Piggot, No thank you. Many other alternatives even with Keds out.
I never doubted you were there Grumpy. I think both managers were there too or else they were two pretty good lookalikes just in front of me.
Three good points earned and it was dry and sunny! Legge was truly the stand out player Piggott a dismal failure in my view, Weston frustrating as he so often is! Strange to see Birchill back playing even it was for a few minutes?
