Dire, toothless, and clueless. Those simple three words sum up today's performance, in fact they are probably flattering to the team. Weston was a shadow of the player he was last year, without confidence and creativity, Lee doesn't look match fit and was virtually anonymous, Rooney reverted to type shooting rather than passing and trying to take on everyone (maybe the praise has gone to his head) and Whelpdale never seemed to be able to get the ball under control, Kuffour and Nouble were starved of the ball for most of the match, Stefan Payne tries hard but I fear is not good enough and Kedwell is simply to slow and unfit. The back four seemed disorganised at best, Jackman was out of position, out muscled and out performed, Fish looked out of his depth and was left exposed by Whelpdale to often, Lawrence and Richards were all over the place and the clearances went up in the air too often and did not clear the danger area. Flitney did Ok but it looked like he pulled his hand down for the first goal. Tactically Hess was out classed today and he did not have a clue how to change it (yet again), I called the subs ten minutes before it actually happened but Hess was either too slow to notice the problems or too slow to react. Mark my words people we will not get automatic promotion this season and if by any miracle we make the playoffs we will be comfortably beaten. However I did manage to get one positive out of the game, the pies, peas and gravy were very nice
BSG - Good to get some thoughts on the game today, from some one that was there. What would your thoughts be on putting it right, working with what we have currently got, in which should be a perfectly capable squad?
Very eloquently and accurately put. I agree with just about all of what you have said. As I have mentioned in other posts this was the first time I've seen Gills this season, and whilst I have seen them play worse in the past this really wasn't good. Morecambe were very well organised defensively, and every time Gills threatened (which wasn't very often) they had men behind the ball in numbers. In retrospect Flitney probably should have pushed the ball over that resulted in the first goal, but it dipped remarkably as it went over him. At half time I heard a number of supporters saying that they thought it was going over (as did I), and although he could have pushed it over he could have then been accused of giving away a needless corner, as the end result would not have been known. It was a judgement call, and he got it wrong, but look out for the flight of the ball when it comes on line if you miss it on the FL Show tonight. At the beginning of the second half Gills did threaten a bit more, but it was mostly huff and puff and not a lot of penetration. Too much high ball, which is a tactic I don't approve of generally, and even less when the wind is blowing as it was today. The midfield generally never got any control, and the whole team never appeared to 'want it' as much as Morecambe. Also I thought Rooney was extremely lucky that the ref missed (I presume) a two footed flying 'tackle' (I use the word with reservation), and whilst he was very active a lot of the runs were of the headless chicken variety. However the one time he should have taken a shot (in the first half when he was running along the edge of the 18 yard line) he chose to keep going and eventually pass it, and nothing resulted of course. My positive - that I didn't have 300 miles to drive home reflecting on that.
BRB - When it was a truely awful as that it is hard to find ways of fixing problems, the simple fact is that we don't have another 11 fit players to replace the starting 11 today. To be honest I don't think we are capable of playing a true 4-4-2 due to the lack of width, Rooney and Whelps keep wanting to cut inside which becomes predictable and easy to defend against as proved to today Itstimupnorth - you are right about Morecambe they were a very well organised unit and cpoed very will with our toothless attack. The Ronney situation was summed up in a nutshell when Keds was overheard saying "Just f*cking pass it mate" towards the end of the match. Also did you notice Keds reaction to Nouble taking the penalty, he didn't look a happy camper at all
On paper, and individually Gills have players with more than enough quality to finish in the top 3 of L 2. I have reservations about one or two - particularly Fish. Bad day yesterday and at Swindon was poor- especially his distribution. But to be fair to him, as a squad, with ouir income for transfers we should be able to ' carry ' one or two who are not absolutely brilliant at this level. I don't feel that there is sufficient ' passing and moving ' when we are in possession. I the first few games of this season we seemed to be able to pass ' for fun ' - but have generally lost this ability ( except in the warm up !! -- why not more often in the game ? ) We need to realise that League 2 is as much about hard work and discipline as talent. Gills are being bettered too many times by players of ' inferior ' talent - but greater application. As aforementioned we have the quality in our team - we need to play to our strengths to overcome any physical weakness that may exist ... e.g Barcelona don't do hoofball because they have a side of ( exquisite) midgets. We won't always win, but we should be able to return to passing the ball into goal scoring situations. Oh well, look on the bright side - an extra hour in bed to get over the long journey. UTG
I think everyone agrees we have the quality and I think we have a far bigger squad than most div 2 teams. The worry surely is that Hessy can't get the best out of them and tactically there are a lot of better managers than him in this league. Time to shape up Hessy, the team and you are underperforming.
too many players off colour given what we know they are capable of and when 3 of those players make up 4 of your midfield you are always gonna struggle. its difficult because if weston, whelpdale and lee played to their full potential we'd have some much creativity and supply for the front 2 let alone a few moer goals from the midfield. its very frustrating but unfort as a lower league club we aren't going to get players who are consistantly brilliant as they'd be playing at a higher level
