As the other camel ( brb ) pointed out, the linesman was awful. In the first half he was extremely slow. I could have crossed the Saraha desert faster than he could keep up with play ! Why can't they stay up with the last defender ? Instead you see them scampering back many yards to try to be in the right position ( where they should have been all the time .) The linesman missed some blatent offsides - leading to situations from which Crawley should have scored a couple before half time. 0-0 not bad under the circumstances. 2 minutes into the second half. It was an obvious penalty. Did the linesman put his flag across his chest ? Nothing ! 1-0 to the Gills - and seemingly to get better with the dismissal of Crawley's centre forward. Was we being given a bit of good fortune ? If so it was being thrown away quicker than some fans season tickets if things don't improve. It has been pointed out that playing Charlie Lee at right back is a risk. I love his whole hearted approach - but, having been booked ( not for his first full blooded tackle of the game ), he demonstrated that a lot of footballers do have their brain removed before putting on their kit. The ball was by the corner flag. The Crawley player was going nowhere - Lee has enough ability to shepherd the striker & prevent a cross into the middle of the penalty area - so why lunge in ? It was a 'no-brainer' for the referee, and gave him a perfect opportunity to win back the home fans immediately after the penalty.... and from the free kick further indiscipline resulted in poor marking for the equaliser. And whilst talking of indiscipline - why have we started to concede quite a few free kicks around 25 yards from our goal ( & central )? They have already cost us valuable points - so why do we not learn ? Crawley's 2nd goal was from such a set piece - but I won't take away credit from Clarke for scoring (just). Gills then get a bit more luck - as Legge literally fell onto the ball for 2-2. I will take any goal for us at the minute - That awful header by the Crawley defender - which hit the post before bouncing to safety - you just know if it had been our defender it would have been an o.g. So we were back on level terms with a bit more luck than judgement. Do we stick or twist ? ( this question should actually come later in this post ) The winning goal made this camel very cross. Again to give the scorer credit - it was well executed - but where was our defending ? Clarke was allowed to run with the ball for a long time - without a challenge. There are times and places when it's 'right' to concede a foul ! Near the half-way line is reasonably safe ( from where Clarke started his run before unleashing his shot ) He should not have been allowed to get anywhere near our goal - and certainly should have been 'blocked' by somebody tracking his run. 2-3 down after 78 minutes. Do we stick or twist ( still not the right time for this question ) 2-3 down after 90 minutes... There is 6 minutes of added time to come ! Now do we twist or stick ?.... The answer was 'stick' !!!!!!! We did nothing in those 6 minutes to try to retrieve a point. Other teams would have bust a gut to equalise. The match stats showed how much we pressed their goal. We managed one corner all game. ( Crawley had 10 ) & Crawley had twice the number of shots we managed. I have forgiven Gills a lot in my time of support - but the lack of effort in those last 6 minutes is inexcusable. It was 10 against 10, yet the Crawley fans were treated to an exhibition of Brazilian style Ole football as Gills seemed incapable of getting a touch.
Martin Allen's comments... [video=youtube;7NY8qRpGGC8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=7NY8qRpGGC8[/video]
I mentioned in another thread how MA will say the same thing before every game and the same thing after, if they all give 100% every game isn't it time for him to except they just aren't good enough?
grumpygit - please excuse my edit - and I hope you had a great birthday - oh, of course you didn't - the Gills lost !
