http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentonline/sport/2011/june/20/gillingham_home_form.aspx Gillingham assistant boss Ian Hendon knows they need to get back to their Priestfield best during the new League 2 campaign. The Gills took just two points from their last four home games last season to effectively end their hopes of a play-off place, with the run including successive 4-2 defeats to Barnet and Macclesfield. With the new season starting and finishing at Priestfield for the Gills, Hendon insisted that they need to get their home form right. "Looking through the list itâs nice to see how things are going to pan out and I was surprised that we start and finish at home â itâs been kind to us in that respect," said Hendon. "We need to start brighter and get going as it took us 13 games last season â itâs important how we start. "It was amazing how the season turned for us (at home). Maybe when we came up against the likes of Barnet and Macclesfield we tried to win the game too much. "A lot of the season I know we werenât the most exciting team at home but we defended well and stayed in games, then picked teams off. "But towards the end of the season when we had to maintain our play-off push we became expansive and were punished badly. "As a coaching team, we are aware of where we went wrong and we want to get back to making Priestfield a fortress." I think we have it in us to play well at home because look we were poor away when we were in league 1 but at home, well you could not fault us so why can we just play well home and away, it can never go that good for us can it? Hessenthaler will need to make sure that we get the right players this time and I believe that if we bring in someone experienced upfront and one with experience in midfield and then add another 5 so I say 7 new players we will be ok. Jason Brown would be great but I can't see it happening so we could do with a keeper around the age of 33 to 37 who knows the football league off the back of his hand, then we need a 30 year old striker next to a younger one, Kedwell would be great, then an experienced midfielder, 1 or 2 young midfielders and also one of two defenders, 1 CB and 1 LB.
Is this not rather obvious, most teams rely on their home form as the bedrock of a good season, much maligned as Stimson is his team was a joy to watch at home, whereas last season we were at best workmanlike at home, now I understand that the season before we were playing teams who came to play open attacking football and last year to be fair most teams came and parked the bus ( and I am certainly not advocating that Stimson returns), but we need to play a more expansive game at home and keep the ball, to often last year we relied on a direct style and had no plan B, so whilst I agree with Hendons sentiments he is hardly telling us something we dont already know. It appears that currently the management will talk about anything in order to deflect from fact that we still have not signed any players and have no first choice GK and just 1 striker!