Officially gone. Contract mutually terminated and he's signed a 18 month deal with Dagenham & Redbridge after scoring 6 in 10 whilst on loan there. Found a level where he can perform at perhaps a more consistent level but I'm not overly sad he's going. Will remember the Portsmouth goal with fondness but not much else I'm afraid.
I hope he does well for his new club, he definitely has talent and seems to have found his goal scoring boots there.
Mark McCammon ---- I'm sorry ! I have reviewed your scoring record for The Gills ( 5 goals in 52 games ). I have been extremely unkind in my assessment of your achievement in front of the goal (in a Gills shirt ). Your scoring record is nothing short of spectacular............................................. ..................... when you compare it with Connor Wilkinson ( 4 goals in 50 games ).
Mark McCammon did bring us a lot of publicity which Wilkinson never did and his lawyer was able to teach our club some vital employment laws. Was he really all that bad?
Well -- they do say that you learn from your mistakes ......Mr. Scally must be a very intelligent man. McCammon certainly gave our HR department the runaround -- a lesson I had hoped we didn't need to be taught. As for Wilkinson - probably a nice guy - the only sort that Gills can afford.
Yes-- but- unfortunately, not often enough ! --- but -- that isn't his fault - it reflects his overall ability. Fans need to be pragmatic about individual ability of the squad -- this makes it more important to give 100% - to try to reduce the effectiveness of the 'superior' opposition. Against Portsmouth the 100% effort was evident - and much appreciated. I do not have a 'personal' agenda with either McCammon or Wilkinson. McCammon's scruples may be questionable - but - it has become obvious that his indiscipline was poorly handled by The Club. His situation then became a farce - in which The Club's HR response was embarrassing. I didn't like that exposure for GFC. McCammon was the unwitting catalyst for the disclosure of our poor man management (( hopefully lessons have been learnt.)) - However, an impartial viewpoint may suggest that McCammon was only doing what was necessary to preserve his interests, and had a valid complaint (( in terms of the laws relating to employment )). Wilkinson joins a long list of Gills 'strikers' of limited ability. I feel that the standard of strikers in the lower divisions has reduced over several years -- or is it that I remember when defending was not given the priority that exists these days ? It isn't surprising that strikers struggle to score more goals - when often they are played as a 'lone' striker - and have to compete with 3 or 4 defenders and 'hoofball' mentality! Wilkinson, over a period of 50 games, proved that he has/had an ability that wasn't up to the [low] standard that we have at GFC. I qualify this assessment, by saying that Jay Emanuel-Thomas ( in similar tactical circumstances as Wilkinson ), managed 10 goals in 33 games ---- and --- as we all know, J E-T hardly moved his arse compared with Wilkinson !
Discussing our striker options is all well and good but scoring goals is not the problem, if we forget the top 7 teams (in a league of their own) we are the highest scoring of the remaining 17. Look at our defensive record and you can see why we are struggling with only one of the relegation teams worse than us..
I think when we do have decent young talent come through, we are for ever too often these days, on their cases as supporters. We don't give them time to gel and grow. And once a player becomes disliked on the terraces then it just goes from bad to worse and the players then can't do right for doing wrong or whatever the saying is!
