Game finished 2-2. 10-25 min of first half we looked decent and the opening 10 mins of the second half which is when we scored both goals were our brightest points. Took Dover's half time subs a little time to adapt but they built their way into the game and we capitalised on that with List & Hanlan's goals. First half was spent going long far too often which is stupid when playing against a Conference side as it's their bread and butter the hoof ball technique. Hessy's Dover caused us problems but looked like a standard Hessy side in all fairness. Get the ball up the other end as quickly as possible and have 11 soldiers on the pitch, regardless of ability.Took us too long to adapt and most of our players looked dead at the end of the game. Appreciate moving kick off forward by 45 mins would have meant it was warmer but slightly concerning with only 10 days or so left for the first game that they were so knackered. On new signings: Cisse - looks solid in the middle of the park and is very tidy on the ball. O'Keefe - was industrious and proved to be a very good leader but perhaps end product left us wanting. Alfie Jones - looked very inexperienced at times for me and struggled against Dover's big number 9. Communication was lacking also. Ndjoli - Movement failed him at times but is quite raw and has a bit of trickery which Dover struggled with. Good pace on him too. Hodson - solid enough defensively but perhaps spent too much time in attacking positions for my liking leaving us open to counter attacks. Bonham - Dear oh dear, not a good night for our new number one whatsoever. Massively at fault for the first goal due to very poor decision making on his part. Kicking was pretty woeful (Holy version 2?) and didn't demand the box and defence enough for my liking. Communication definitely needs improvement. Might have been a blip as I've not seen any other preseason games but I'm not fully sold on the new look Steve Evans Gillingham just yet I'm afraid.
Not a very good performance compared to previous games, back to the drawing board. How serious is the Matty willock injury, he's still missing. Nathan Thomas gone back to his parent club ?
Willock has apparently got a virus which has ruled him out the last few days. The official line about Thomas is that he couldn't settle down South as his wife and 1 year old remained in the North East so that has been terminated. He's signed on loan for Carlisle in League 2 today for rest of the season. Does mean that in two transfer windows, Sheffield United have loaned us a player that never played a single minute for us. Go figure.
