Been a busy week so I've missed the inevitable fallout from Monday. I saw the last half hour - I have other commitments on Monday evenings, but my daughter persuaded one of the pubs in the village to put it on - and so actually saw the best part of the match as far as Gills were concerned. Not that even that was particularly brilliant though. Not sure whether we doubled the number of clientele in the pub or whether the rest were driven away. Was greeted with the resume of the first half and brought to mind my comments pre-Burton
"Also speculation that Jack Evans might be in at right back - don't know much about him but whilst I think Lawrence is a great centre back I really don't like to see him in wider positions, and so if he is a specialist right back then why not? But would Hess put Evans and Essam in the same back four? Risky methinks, so maybe it's Lawrence in at centre with Richards and Evans on the right.
We all (no, make that a lot of us) think that a shake up of the back 4 is required, but it's going to be interesting to see what line up he comes up with. Hopefully more of a shake up than at Accrington, but what odds on 3 substitutions before half time?"
OK, not exactly earth shatteringly accurate, but for me, not a bad stab. And what didn't happen on Saturday almost happened on Monday, with the anticipated dpressing result.
The time has surely come to question seriously
a) whether Hessy actually understands the problem and
b) if he does, whether he realises not how something can be done about it, but simply whether something can be done about it.
Half a game isn't enought to assess the ability of two young ex-youth squad players, but from the reports I got and what I saw they certainly couldn't do any worse. Consideration must be given to the psychological effect of a young player being brought in to a side and being totally outplayed, but they've got to start somewhere. We've seen promises of defensive shake-ups since the Wimbledon game. So, back 4 v Wimbledon - Lee Richards Lawrence Martin, starting back 4 v Southend - Lawrence Frampton Richards Martin. What was it someone once said about shuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic?
A few games ago we were still talking about having a good run in and possibly challenging for an automatic spot. Now we'll have to go some to get into the play-offs. That said if things are turned round and we do get 7th or better then we'll obviously have some decent recent form behind us, which is no bad thing at the end of the season.
Personally I think that Scally will give Hess until the end of the season, but if we don't at least reach the play-offs then I think he'll be gone, and possibly even if we reach the play-offs but don't get promoted. I'm assuming here that automatic promotion is an impossibility of course.
Tomorrow is another day.