Gills lose again home to Preston. A much better display by Gills especially in the first half with Gills unlucky not to be leading with Dickenson having his best game in a blue shirt deserving a goal when his delightful curling shot beating the goalkeeper only for it to hit the crossbar.The second half was so different as class finally showed when Preston mounted attack after attack hitting the woodwork 4 or 5 times and having Nelson tipping one over and Egan clearing off the line with two players next to him.Preston got the only goal but should really of won by at least 2 or 3 goals. Preston will no doubt be in the top 6come the end of season and if Gills play like they did in the first half should be good enough to stay up.
I would concur with your assessment Dickenson had a really good game, I'm surprised we didnt use him more as an outlet. I thought we probably shaded the first half, second half we ran out of puff and ideas. Hessy junior and Pritchard I thought were pretty ineffective and lacked any creative ability. The rest of the side played pretty well. Bring back Maddog and I reckon we will rocket up the table!!!
Ditto - as per my reply to Tim's thread. The first half performance proved that we do have enough to stay in L1 for next season - but why don't we play with the same positivity as that ALL of the time? It was a welcome change from Taylor's negative tactics. In most other games we would have been going in at half time 2 or 3 goals to the good, and with space to 'breathe' even if the opponent scored a goal. I would like to see the first half tactics replicated at ALL games - we were unlucky not to score last night - we WILL score in future games - but not if we revert to the other performances of late.
Overall a good performance and unlucky not to score, thought stay at home Nelson could have dealt with the cross that led to their goal, still think we could start defending before the last 3rd instead of backing off.
It is troubling times for the club, the team seems to blow hot and cold, however, the icy winds are blowing more and more these days. Something doesn't seem to be working, the players seem good enough on paper; Taylor certainly has enough pedigree at this level but the two sides of the equation don't match. I am not as optimistic as Always and his assessment that we will avoid relegation, one half decent half of football in three or four games simply won't cut it, I am worried
How i currently see it. I'm not tactically aware to identify the problem but what i do identify as a supporter is no flair. Putting Preston to one side because i was too poorly to attend. But at Rochdale, I have to say, the lads nearly sent me to sleep and i'm sure it wasn't totally due to the beer. I could probably accept the negative tactics if they were proven to be working. But I said to my lad after the 0-3 home defeat to Scun thorpe, I'm just not seeing that passionate flair anymore, that final gung ho style . As Preston proved from what i gather in the first half, that if you at least go down with a fight the supporters respect that. Example being i'm sure i would much preferred to have watched us lose 0-1 in style to a promotion chasing Preston side, then get hammered in dour style by a mid-table Scun thorpe side. It's not the defeat that hurts but the manner in which it is inflicted, and Taylor's sitting back tactics are doing my head in, especially when for no reward. So three choices, Taylor needs to make it work, or change the tactics or leave via the back door, simples.
BSG I think that you're going down with whatever brb has got - I thought that I have made myself quite clear about our fortunes. Trust me - I don't think that I could find a bookmaker who would give me long odds on Gills avoiding relegation ! My only ever-so-slightly/remotely optimistic head says that IF we replicate the performance of the first half v PNE on ENOUGH occasions we MIGHT avoid relegation - if Hell freezes over first.--- because ALL the other performances would seriously test the swear filter's capability in this forum
There was little wrong with Gills performance last night. The trouble was that a Championship quality team was playing a League 1 mid table (at best) side. It was a credit to the minnows that they gave all in a highly entertaining game that offered a bagful of near misses at both ends. It was a fair result but it might have gone either way. The game was epitomised when Gills brought on their substitute striker...German. PNE brought on Kevin Davies. Budgets talk! But there was no shame for the Gills who were well organised, Kedwell made a massive difference even though he missed a sitter, Mcdonald was lively again, Dickerson showed potential for the first 20 mins before disappearing and the back four struggled gamely. Midfield was a bit outclassed...oh for a bit of quality from Loft. North End steam on, the best team to visit and six straight wins. Gills remain with plenty of glimmers of optimism for the relegation fight that beckons.
I know that you can make statistics prove whatever you want, but certain of them are very telling. The following cover the first 14 league games of the season, 7 home and 7 away. Even at that point there have to be provisos as the season is 46 games long, and as we all know the relative strength of teams can vary during the season. Added to which of course there is the glorious unpredictability of football which can produce results like Gills win over Wolves last season, and S'thorpe's win 10 days ago. But nearly a third of the way through the season averages start to make sense, so, for what they are worth, the stats (taken from individual match reports from the BBC web site) are : Possession : Gills at home average 47% possesion (we have only had more than 50% possession at home against Yeovil and Crewe) Gills away average 45% possession (the best away possession figure is 50% against Notts Co.) Total shots : Gills at home average 9.14 shots per game Opposition at Priestfield average 13.28 shots per game Gills away average 7 shots per game Opposition at home average 16 shots per game Shots on target Gills at home average 3.57 shots on target per game Opposition at Priestfield average 4.43 shots on target per game Gills away average 2.57 shots on target per game Opposition at home average 6 shots on target per game Corners Gills at home average 4.85 corners per game Opposition at Priestfield average 6 corners per game Gills away average 3.57 corners per game Opposition at home average 8.42 corners per game That to me is not just an occasional aberration, it's being outperformed at every level whether home or away, and numerical justification of the perceived view that we're just not controlling games enough. I agree with the views that have been expressed that we just don't go for it enough. Notts County was a classic case in point. We were set up defensively, and apart from a burst in first couple of minutes only started to play when we were 1-0 down after German came on to try and salvage a point. At this level you cannot afford to be too conservative with a style of play because unless you have a really first class defence you are going to get found out and concede. The other problem is that at the moment we can hardly buy a goal - 4 in 9 games since the beginning of September is without doubt relegation potential. And a final statistic - 14 games and 13 points would give us 43 points at the end of the season if the same average were maintained. I haven't checked, but I very much doubt if anyone has stayed up with 43 points in a 46 game season. I also believe that we do have the players with the ability to play successfully at this level, in which case it is the tactics that are dragging us down. Something (or someone) needs to change.
TIM - Thanks for helping me to cheer up our fellow fans ! I note the reason for your 'edit'. I had hoped that you might have misspelled the word 'aberration', but no, it's all correct - as was your spelling of relegation. I think that the only person who fails to fully appreciate the statistics that you have provided is Peter Taylor. He even had praise for the team after the Scunthorpe defeat. ( I'm not sure where he saw anyone busting a gut to make up for the numerical disparity ) On Tuesday v PNE & against Peterborough the players performed at a much higher level and with greater intensity than in ALL the other matches - against opposition that, on paper are stronger than most sides in L1. These performances prove that we DO have the ability and ambition within the squad to be a lot nearer the top of the division - WHY do we only produce these performances once in a blue moon. The logical answer ( using your statistics - and from watching so much rubbish ) is that the tactics/ and or the lack of motivational skills are wrong. I've got nothing against Peter Taylor as a person - but HIS tactics and or the inability to insert rectal rockets are dragging us down. edit ; Gemini Swift you might as well make this thread a 'sticky'
Alwaysright - I do try to be accurate (sometime pedantically so) when it comes to spelling and grammar, but sometimes, especially later in the evening, my proofreading tends to be a bit lapse. Unfortunately the detail in my post of yesterday is accurate, it's just the way that people wish to interpret the interpretation that may vary. What is not there is the degree of variation in the various statistics from match to match. 40 or so years ago I would have been able to apply all sorts of further analysis to the numbers, but most of what I learned from my Statistics 'A' level has, Homer Simpson like, been pushed out of my brain to make room for new stuff. Whichever number you care to look at the picture does look grim at the moment, but to apply further analysis and provide suggestions for a starting point for what might hopefully be an improvement would be to look at the possession figure more closely. How possession figures are actually calculated is a mystery to me, and we all know that possession does not necessarily equate to a positive result - at Sheffield United we had 41% possession but so nearly stole a point, whereas at home to Swindon we only had 35% possession and still managed to draw - but it is generally accepted that it is easier to play with the ball than chasing it. Aside from the games mentioned above we have only had less than 45% possession against MK Dons (40%), Barnsley (41%), and Oldham (44%), which means that for the most part although we are obviously not keeping possession for long enough in most games, we are not being given the complete run around by teams that can keep possession. So, why are we not keeping the ball for long enough, and what can be done about it? From personal observation it seems to me that in many cases, leaving aside the times when it is necessary just to clear the ball from a dangerous situation, the 'wrong' pass is made, resulting in possession being lost. By 'wrong' passes I mean either those made to players that are too closely marked for the receiving player to be able to easily take control of the ball, or passes played into areas where there is no player to receive the ball. Expanding the first of these a little further, such passes would include those made at a speed or height where the receiving player cannot bring the ball under control quickly enough to be able to pass the ball himself without giving time for an opposition player to put in a tackle. How is this remedied? Quite simply by (a) passing the ball into a space where a receiving player is expecting it and can get to the ball and get it under control before an opposition player or (b) by the receiving player moving into space away from opposing players in order to receive the ball. This is not rocket science, and I don't think it's expecting too much of players at this level. I don't thing any spectator of any club at this level expects to see the quick, accurate passing and length of time that one team can retain possession that you can see if you decide to stay in and watch a Champions League match on TV on a Tuesday night instead of turning out to watch your own club, but there are surely minimum levels of standard of play that it is reasonable to expect. What it does involve is for players without the ball to MOVE into areas where they can receive the ball without the risk of losing it immediately, and for the player with the ball to recognise where are the 'safe' areas to pass the ball. The lack of movement is something that was very obvious at Notts County (even when we were trying our best at 1-0 down), and also at Rochdale where in too many cases players with the ball just did not have the options when it came to passing the ball. That's the end of lesson 1. I am encouraged to hear reports of the first half performance against Preston who, let's face it, were always going to be a challenging team to play and are in excellent form, but of course agree that we need to achieve that level more consistently, especially away from home where we have scored just 5 goals and gained 2 points in 7 games. There is time, but the clock is ticking.
