Ironic that today Wolverhampton Wanderers got promoted, the club that at the beginning of the season gave us a 4-0 mauling. It was evident despite it being one of the most inhospitable places i have been to this season that they were destined for an instant return to the Championship. Martin Allen was in charge of the reigns at that time, until 11 games in when Scally decided it was time for him to depart company with MadDog after a 2-0 defeat at Shrewsbury. Although let us bear in mind MA was just turning a corner on the back of two previous wins despite the atrocious start. Today Peter Taylor took us to the lowest point of my season with a completely diabolical performance against Leyton Orient, the negative man as i see him made us a laughing stock in front of 1200 travelling Gills supporters, 4-0 down by half-time. I constantly warned about Taylor's negativity, not just over the last few weeks but months now and the trouble brewing ahead. I didn't think I could be right again, when 15 months ago I warned about the previous departed manager's tactics in youth v experience, it took a tinpot before anyone opened their eyes and saw the reality that we was not going to smash league one. So let us look at that youth, Dack where was he? Not even on the bench. Oh Dack was at the game alright but guess what, he just was not selected, not due to injury but for a reason unknown, even by the player. Some one feel free to correct me if they know differently and my information is wrong. What did go wrong today? Ask Harriman, the poor guy looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him up. Not surprised, my normally relaxed composure at a game became eroded and i completely lost my cool. When that fourth goal went in you would have needed a straight jacket to contain my behaviour. I've travelled the length and breadth of the country this season to support my team, through thick and thin I've applauded my side but not today, Taylor you need to go, you really have not got a clue. I've had enough of your tinkering and today like a stock market crash, you just severely damaged the percentage selling price of season tickets next season with that performance in front of a sell out away allocation. Previously you dropped Hessy for reasons unknown after his wonder goal, now you drop Dack the only player apart from Nelson putting in a consistent performance. Up front where was the big man Bayo? You let Davies go out on loan and left us short at the back, with Legge injured and Inniss gone. Chucking poor Charlie Lee in the deep end, when we needed him in midfield. Sorry Taylor your tinkering is done...walk out...shut the door behind you...it's marked EXIT...don't look back...GO and GO now, I've had enough. People will say give you time. What the same time that was given to Allen? By the end of season you will have had 35 games more than the manager before in L1. After today's display you will no longer get my support, if you stay and i hope Scally decides you don't, it will be down to you to prove me wrong. If any one thinks i'm being harsh, I can assure you my real thoughts are and would be unprintable. People say you kept us in league one, huh! if we actually achieve that goal. I would argue that most managers could have kept us in the league with what is at your disposal. But you choose to tinker with our future rather than get the job done. Constantly looking over your shoulder, like a self inflicted injury. I won't stay away but be assured any more slip ups, you can rest assured you will again get both barrels again until you stop your meddling. I heard it once said that you inherited the team it is not your own. I don't have the time to enter into this debate but before people do, they will find that PT has had more incomings than you realise and fair opportunity to get this right. Five goals conceded against Orient, Four goals conceded against Rotherham (eight in total), Three goals conceded against Crewe, Three goals conceded against Stevenage, shall I go on, only Tranmere have a worse goal difference out of the bottom four, so what was that word I was looking for... Disgraceful!
Need to change it at the top now, I have tried to bang the peter taylor drum but feel its been thrown back in my face today. Young dynamic manager needed rather than the old tired inept one PT is proving to be. Sorry to be so harsh and will still support him for the rest of the season but cant turn in a display like that and expect all to be rosy in the garden of england.
Um, a difficult situation for me as I very much like Peter Taylor. However I am also concerned with the manner of defeats and some of the team selections. The defence has been a major problem all season and has not been addressed. The best performances I have seen this season have always been when Dack and Bayo have been on the pitch and neither are guaranteed starters and did not get a second on the pitch today. I look at other sides in our league and do think perhaps we need a younger manager with some fresh ideas. Sorry Peter, big fan but perhaps time for a new direction, please keep us up though.
Used to be a fan….on the back of past performances. Like the warning that goes with financial investments 'Past performance is not a guarantee of future achievement'. Not happy……not a time for a knee jerk reaction with just a few games left either. As long as PT knows how we, the fans, are feeling now……..
BRB, I could not agree more with your comments, I am not one for coming on here and demanding change etc, but yesterdays match was as inept a performance as I have ever seen from a Gillingham team and from the manager more than the 11 players on pitch (8 of whom were worse than hopeless). I don't know how many times we have had Orient watched but the way we set up for the match played right into their hands they had so much space on the flanks it was unbelievable and for the manager to make no effort to change our formation in order to negate this is unforgiveable. I thank Peter Taylor for settling the ship in the wake of the turbulence of Martin Allens tenure but as far as I am concerned he can leave today and let Schofield take charge for the last 4 games as I really I cant see that he could get us playing any worse
look at my statement for the prediction league I saw this coming, I also stated that by the grace of God the teams below us would also lose still keeping us 5 points out of the relagation zone. We have 4 games left two of those against teams lower than us which we have to win, Preston will be a defeat, Walsall have form. I for one could not believe Mr Taylor being employed by us again, when there are managers out there who deserve a chance. I know one guy out there if we could afford him would be a great adversary Billie Davis. I am a loyal faithful supporter like many, and I agree see the last four games out and leave by the back door Mr Taylor
[video=youtube;qaAfZ9ouxb4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qaAfZ9ouxb4[/video]
The defending was poor non-league at best, Taylor couldn't make them into football players if he had 10 years, why on earth for the 2nd goal was Barrett shadowing Hess? or was he just hiding behind him. Most of our team will need to be culled in the summer and replacements sought, the trouble is we just don't have the budget to compete and will have to get young up and coming lads or old has been and going down fast players. I still think that Taylor deserves a go with his own team of league 1 players rather than MA's Brentford and Peterborough cast offs.
I'm not sure if I can agree with you on the 'PT must go' front. I've recently been re-reading "Never Look Back" (the story of our 99/00 promotion) and remembering how great everything was for us then (and that cup run of course). I do think he deserves more time. This was always going to be a tough run in considering the respective league positions of the opposition. I think he should really get a full pre-season to work with the group. Give him the first 10 games of next season (provided we stay up) and if things aren't much different, then I might agree with you.
'Superbob' only once at Hull has Peter Taylor ever built his own side successfully. At the Gills he inherited a very good team and made a couple of changes, but the team that won promotion was primarily the one that Pulis had built, I am fairly sure that every side he has managed (other than Hull) for more than 1 season has done worse in the second season and we certainly cannot afford that, I will admit that under Taylor the first time we played nicer football than we did under Pulis and this season we have probably played nicer football (occasionally) than we did under Allen, but the game has moved on and I am afraid that Taylor hasn't, his achievements first time around mean that he will always deserve his place in the clubs history and I would rather that those memories were not tarnished by him staying any longer.
Whatever you choose to say about the team being his or someone else's it's only fair to balance the anti PT arguments with some facts. 1999/2000 Gillingham promoted. 2001/2 Brighton league 2 champions. 2003/4 Hull promoted. 2004/5 Hull promoted. 2008/9 Wycombe promoted. Just thought seeing the above helps to balance the argument.
Those are good facts Grumpy and I cant argue that Peter Taylor has had success in his managerial career, he can also point to winning over 36% of the matches he has managed teams in (though his loss % is very similar too) I have already said that he was a great success at Hull, but he didn't hang around for a 2nd season with us or with Brighton having won promotion and his 2nd season records dont make happy reading Leicester sacked in September Crystal Palace sacked in October Wycombe sacked in October Bradford sacked in February Stevenage didnt renew contract for a 2nd season Just tipping the balance back!
brb.....I have just noticed that bootsie on KOL has recommended that The Chairman reads your DISGRACEFUL post !
Good old Grumpy, just the person to show us the true facts about PT with only five significant achievements in 15 years. In other words we can expect to get non-achievement twice as much as success when he is the manager. And what about the last three games? When PT was appointed back in October we were all banking on at least 12 points from these three, after all it was not as if we were playing decent teams was it? And look at the league table. Its all very well us being bookies favourite for relegation in October. All Gills fans are realists and we all know that with the right mix of players from the existing squad we should be pushing for auto promotion. And what have we got? If we lose the next four games and all the teams below us win theirs then there is no doubt about it we will be relegated and it will be all down to PT. Now I know that some people will say that 48 points means that historically, teams are safe from relegation, but the year that rule was broken it was Gills that went down. Turning to team selection, again PT has got it all wrong. He has wasted the transfer budget given to him by Scally by not spending it. then when he needs experience he lets Legge, ***an, and Kedwell get injured. So what does he do? He picks youngsters who need experience. And then when they get fatigued he rests them. Obviously he should be picking youngsters with experience. And what about Bayo. We know he is great for 30 minutes but when he starts he is not there to change the game as a second half sub and when he is saved on the bench for the second half, he is not there in the first half to help build a lead. Its baffling and PT will have to go now. I reckon we need a younger replacement with crowd appeal and the obvious guy is Chris Dickson. Then in October we can try Ashley Miller he is a smart lad and he knows the club and he really understands the problems of talented young players breaking through. After that maybe Adam Barrett can take over as player-manager and after that maybe Charlie Lee to inject a bit more fight then maybe Mark MacCammon. Alternatively we could sit back patiently for three years and give total support to PT and see if he could take a huge step forward and make Gills a top ten league 1 side. Nah that just shows lack of ambition.
OTiC - thanks for letting me know, I just went and found it after I saw your message...http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/sport/orient-v-gills-reaction-15759/ Bit embarrassed by the attention but anyone that knows me personally, knows i speak from the heart. It's up to the Chairman how he views it, IF he even has the time to read it. Just hope it don't drop me in the dung.
Let's use the 2008/09 achievement to mirror my example; With Wycombe Peter Taylor achieved promotion but unlike Martin Allen, PT came third whereas MA won our first Championship in 50 years. Now don't get me wrong it was well voiced that i was not the greatest fan of MadDog but i do believe in being fair and consistent in example. After Taylor's promotion, I believe he lost his job part way through the season much like our own previously departed manager. History shown that Wycombe were subsequently relegated back to League Two the following season from being promoted. I'm all for giving manager's a long term contract. The question raised is considering my ONE example; MA's achievement is greater than PT's as a comparison. I therefore assume we would also have agreed to the previously departed of being given a three year contract? The plus points for me in Taylor over Allen is that at least he does give the youngsters a chance but he tinkers too much, if there was a cynic in me, it would also suggest PT is picking and choosing his selections on the games he feels he is going to win. I hasten to add i'm sure that cynic would be wrong, however, IF he was, then let us know and we will avoid the games as supporters where the best team available is not going to turn up at AWAY games. I always suggest it is not good to recreate the past, I feel it generally ends with disastrous effect. I use Hessy as an example, he certainly has an eye for talent but many supporters were not very happy with his role as manager. I still remember Dover well, it was horrible witnessing the abuse he took from the stands. The same it was horrible witnessing some of what was dished out by some on Saturday. I don't mind losing to Leyton Orient but it's the manner of defeats that constantly hurts, the second worst goals against record in the league, this cannot all lay at the feet of MA 35 games later.
I am all in favour of a long term plan and giving the right manager time to build a squad of players and making gradual progress to establish us a top half league 1 team who might challenge for the play offs. I am also not one for knee jerk reactions, but I have seen nothing from Peter Taylor as our manager this season (or in his last 4 jobs) that suggests that he is the man to be trusted with this plan at our club. I will agree that he has been a little unlucky with injuries, but they are part and parcel of the game and the squad should be able to cope with the loss of a couple of players at a time (and I maintain that Kedwell is no great loss). But like BRB its not losing that hurts (especially against the top sides), but its the manner of the defeats. At Orient on Saturday we were set up badly from the start playing a narrow midfield against a team that were set up to play with their wingers as the focal point of their attacks, and our manager did nothing to change our formation in attempt to negate the influence of their wide players and we were cut open time and time again, and it was exactly the same v Crewe we couldn’t cope with the pace and power of their front players, but again we made no attempt to change the way played when we were being clearly being outplayed. I want my manager to have a plan B and a Plan C if necessary and be able to get these across to his players. I like Peter Taylor he seems to be a decent bloke and he gave me one of my favourite ever days at a football match and for that I will always respect him. But I would rather be left those memories than ones he is giving me now. So yes lets have a long term plan but with someone else at the helm.
You are completely off topic; you edited out the words 'this season' also it's a discussion about Gillingham FC - therefore your post has been removed.
I'm liking this new aggressive brb!! I don't like to dwell on the past but its a shame MA wasn't given more time, I'm confident we wouldn't of been in a no worse position under him. Defence has become a complete joke, Tranmere game has become an absolute must win now.
