Saturday 15th December 2012, saw top of the table Gillingham FC welcome promotion challengers Fleetwood Town to Priestfield for their League Two fixture. This is not a journalist view but one through the mere eyes of a season ticket holder in the Medway Stand who attended today’s game. There was indication late in the week that this game was going to be a near sell-out in the main three home stands. Therefore sections of the Brian Moore Stand normally reserved solely for away supporters was opened to home supporters during the clubs Christmas match ticket incentive. I made my way for pre match refreshments early in the knowledge of 8,000 fans descending on Priestfield which in turn would mean a packed Cricketers Public House. However, things were not to go quite to plan on this day, when my blood pressure decided to take a sudden drop quicker than a Stuart Nelson long ball. Despite that I was determined I was going to make the game, while other pre match celebrations were all put on hold. Is that four decades of passion for you or is it just I am a stubborn old fool. I hasten to add I recovered my composure and eventually made my way in to the ground a lot earlier than planned. This early arrival at the ground, allowed me to witness Father Christmas taking a tour round the pitch in a modern day four wheeled sleigh, well a golf buggy, handing out sweets to the kids. Players were signing autographs for the younger members, while Tommy Trublu participated with his flashing red nose! What strange events you happen to see when not intoxicated! Someone tells me it’s the Christmas Spirit ‘Bah! Humbug!’ Then my ears were to hear even stranger things, as a safety announcement had to be put out for fans to take to their seats as they were causing some issues with supporters trying to get into the ground. This all took the GFC Gems by some surprise causing minor disruption to their routine but then carried on in a manner that reminds us the show must go on. All I could see was a train of people walking along the foot of the Gordon Road Stand attempting to make their way to seats. I hope my friend ’alwaysright’ is not stuck in that people train, I would sense his frustrations the width of a pitch. The emotions must have become me today as I even sat there explaining to my son how you used to be able to walk from the Town End to the Rainham End for each half via the GRS –oh how I must have bored the living daylights out of him, let alone how many times have I told that story now. So the game eventually got under way with the Gills kicking towards the BMS in the first half. It was good to see Romain Vincelot in the starting line up, especially after the scare last week in the match against Rotherham, which saw him needing urgent and lengthy medical attention before being taken to hospital. The boys in blue certainly provided the early attacks into The Cod Army area. However, Fleetwood started to push forward with pace down the flanks, earning themselves a couple of corners , which appeared totally wasted when they attempted to play some daft game where two Fleetwood players would try and play it short, both resulting in conceding free-kicks to the home side. Eventually though Fleetwood opened the scoring with a fierce low cross from the left, which took the guidance it needed from the incoming Fleetwood leg of Junior Brown at the far post in the 20th minute. 1-0 to the visitors and they were starting to look dangerous. I felt this was not just about the threat of one player but the opposition gelling as a team in whole, with quickness about them in their attacks. They seemed to be closing the Gills down at every move and I was searching for answers. From my near side it appeared as though Fish was struggling to get forward, no sooner would he get the ball on the wing and he would be outdone by two players with no room to move and this appeared to be happening throughout our play. Fleetwood were to add to their tally only eight minutes later, when they had another corner on the left. Did they catch the Gills unaware on this occasion and instead of playing the supposed short corner, whipped it straight in and on to the head of Goodall. 2-0 and I felt as though we had been slightly out done in the situation, following a very good cross. Now to turn this deficit around, we needed to get one before halftime, I could not believe this was happening and on a day when we had a bumper crowd of 8,500+ On 42 minutes the home crowd were out of their seats as Charlie Lee scored and made it 1-2 before half-time. Then how Vincelot never equalised on the stroke of half time is beyond me, when a thunderous shot was kept out. I was later to learn the power of the shot was to be taken full in the face of a Fleetwood player a painful experience that prevented us from equalising. At half time I turned to my lad and said we need Myles Weston, everything was too easy and playing into Fleetwood’s game play, all too predictable, we needed something to tear the pattern of play up and who should do that, none other than that very substitution replacing Deon Burton. Myles Weston totally ripped Fleetwood to pieces in the second half, moving from the left of play to the right and coming through the centre. The visitors could not handle him. Every ball that then came forward I was just wishing to be placed through to Weston. I am not sure if Weston was instructed too or whether he worked it out for himself but the best feed appeared to becoming from Matt Fish. Even more noticeable on one occasion when Weston was stuck over on the left with Fish having the ball on the right and the young right back looked lost on where or whom to feed the ball through too. Kedwell was strong in the middle but his turn and control with the ball at his feet was to slow. I have previously stated that Weston needed to be in the middle, it does not work for him down the left but at last Matt Fish on the right had someone to play the ball through to and was no longer cornered. Eventually Weston’s hard work was to pay off when in the 65th minute he was to level the scores to 2-2 to the delight of the crowd. Fleetwood after appearing happy with their slender lead then proceeded on to the attack again, even having one ruled for offside near the end. But they realised the ever present threat of Weston and in the end were probably happy to settle for a point. I believe if opportunities had fallen more fortunately we could probably have win this game but the points shared was a fair result. This was not the Gills best day but it was certainly the best I had seen from our number 24. Certainly an eventful day, made even more interesting by some of the strange day tripper comments you over hear within the Gills largest attendance of the season. Adam Barrett was named man of the match.
brb It was comical that there needed to be a public safety announcement - what will we do if we ever get a big crowd ? The reason for the 'volume' of people that you saw traversing the narrow walkway in front of my shed is because there was only one turnstile open in Gordon Road - only for season ticket holders !! By my reckoning there may be about 1000 or so season ticket holders who normally occupy the Gordon Road stand. This means that the circa 5000 matchday ticket holders for the Rainham End & Gordon Road stands were compelled to enter the ground via the turnstiles at the Rainham End. ........ that meant that virtually all the fans going into the Gordon Road stand had to clog up that narrow aisle at the front of the stand - instead - if common sense were to prevail- the club would allow all types of ticket holders for blocks E - H to enter via Gordon Road.
Good report. A few points of note from me: 1. Why does MA not start with Weston, as he provided much needed pace and width that we were lacking in the 1st half. 2. Kedwell, despite all he effort and ariel ability, just doesn't look like scoring from open play. 3. Although we did produce a much better 2nd half performance, we still seemed to play the simple hoof ball forward far too often (and to Weston who i don't remember winning one header, but that is not his strength as we all know!). 4. Our passing at times was woeful... 5. Nelson had a poor game - distribution was erratic at best and was lucky with his mistake in the 2nd half. Despite this we are still 5pts clear and after January will have improved the team for the long run in.
I would like to answer your first two your points if I may Shouting Man, inputting my own personal opinion: Up until yesterday I had previously raised questions about Myles Weston and I was not at a loss to his non starts. For whatever reason I feel it just does not work for him down the left, he attacks with great pace but tends more often than not to be brought to a halt on the edge of the box by teams that have done their homework. However, down on the right against Fleetwood one of two things I think happened. The first being that either the visitors had a weakness on the right or second he has found a fantastic connection with Matt Fish. I quite liked the idea of Weston sitting centre and appearing to have a free role to move to either flank. I will leave that to the tacticians to confirm what role he was actually playing but I saw something in Weston that he has the ability to do but failed to provide as often as I would like, hence exposing any markers to areas of weakness - so it could be a combination of the two things. Turning to Keds and before any one has a go at me, I recently made a vocal defence of the player in regards to his scoring ability but I am honest on a match by match basis and some of yesterday did not fill me with joy. He had an opportunity at his feet with back to goal. His attempt at turning and sense of direction on the ball raised questions with me. All easy as a spectator but my thoughts were, where was the back flick or that little bit of inventive genius that you see from a quality goal scorer if he is better than League Two. Yes, people will rightly point to the positives such as supplying Charlie Lee's goal but see my later midfield comment. I think sometimes he is trying to hard to place the ball with perfection in the same way he takes his penalties, rather than ride his luck and some quality inventiveness a little. Maybe due to his strength he is limited in comparison to Weston's agile ability but these two need to be clicking together in the same way as the earlier mentioned Fish/Weston scenario. I witnessed one occasion when the ball came full on at Keds chest with his back to goal, just outside the Fleetwood box, the ball bounded several yards back up field with the force. I immediately thought of Akinfenwa, the ball always came down to his feet with a neat little flick on. People used to say how good Cody was and I always maintained he was only as good as Bayo's distribution. Keds quality is his strength and his non stop energy to fight for every ball but if that is the case stick him in midfield in place of Montrose, while still maintaining his penalty taking. Then bring in another holding/distribution striker - or is Deon Burton that player. Where was the distribution for Myles from Keds or were my observations poor, maybe it was Keds who was holding the front line and creating the space for Weston to run into the gaps? I saw a different Weston yesterday, I just now need a tactician to work it all out for me.
One of the things that concerned me on saturday was playing Barrett and Frampton together. Both of them defended really well but most of the time when Frampton passed, you could see why we stayed in this division from last season. I think he's got too stuck in the rutt of playing the long ball. I have no problem with having Barrett and Frampton playing together as they both defended really well on saturday. For me I even thought Frampton defended better than Barrett apart from the aerial ability. However at times their Junior Brown was able to cut open them quite easily due to his speed and agility and is why I would prefer a younger and quicker defender such as Davies or Essam to partner Barrett at the back, but then again Im not Mad Dog so my opinion is invalid. I think Jack Payne was getting back to his best on saturday and proved that he is much better for us when he is in the team.
