I have said for a while we would not be in the play-offs. We will now not have players like Dack, Donelly, Norris, Samuels and others that have joined us from teams outside of our league, those on contracts will be sold with ties . But It will not help us stay in league 1 have seen some strange things happen to us over my 50 years as a supporter, but none as strange as this season. Cruising, top of the heap, beating everyone, scoring goals like no tomorrow, Then NOTHING. Can't hit the post, can't win . What has happened , same players ?? same Manager !!! or are the Back Room Boys pulling the strings, frightened of spending money we don't have. I think next season will be our last in Div 1 after a mass exodus of players we will see ourselves back in Div 2. Would like opinions from those that have spent their hard earned wedge following the Gills this season as to what their thoughts are, as they would have seen first hand any problems
Sheff Utd (h) 4-0 Best performance of the season = everything came good ! Port Vale (a) 1-1 Vale dominated - but Gills battled well for a point. Bradford (a) 2-1 Good team performance - lots of neat passing ! Wigan (h) 2-0 solid team performance without being spectacular ( Wigan were nowhere near the top at the time ) Peterborough (a) 1-1 entertaining game from both teams - threw away points after taking a late lead. Doncaster (h) 1-0 Gills not brilliant - against team now in relegation places Blackpool (h) 2-1 Bright start - but went 'flat' before struggling to beat another low placed team. Colchester (a) 1-2 Rubbish defending against a team now already relegated. Barnsley (a) 0-2 more poor defending - Barnsley were in/ around the relegation places at the time. Fleetwood (h) 5-1 Everything in first half - poor in second period - against low placed team. Oldham (h) 3-3 Lively scoring - but, in truth poor defending. Fair result against another team in the lower part of the division Chesterfield (a) 3-1 A good (fairly rare) performance Crewe (a) 1-0 Injury time goal - Gills struggled to beat Crewe - who were in bottom 4 and yet missed chances to embarrass us further. Scunthorpe (h) 2-1 Gills were poor - and very lucky not to lose - grabbed a 93rd minute winner Southend (h) 1-1 Gills really poor - lots of hoofball - salvaged a point with a 'freak 45 yard goal from Loft (who ? ) Walsall (a) 2-3 The first of 3 (away) where poor defending wasted a 2 goal lead. Fair result in the end. Bury (h) 3-1 Actually a good performance - but by now they were becoming rarer than hens teeth. Coventry (a) 1-4 Totally embarrassed with 4 goals in 12 first half minutes - thankfully Coventry felt sorry for us after half time. Rochdale (h) 2-0 Obviously better than last game - but performance not special. Nelson was kept very busy and influenced the result. Shrewsbury (a) 2-2 A reasonable performance - although threw away another lead - not good enough for promotion aspiration. Burton (h) -0-3 The sending off completely ruined the game - and Burton punished us with very neat football - I think it was called passing the ball to feet ! Millwall (a) 3-0 Another sending off influenced the result - this time Gills did to Millwall what Burton did to us. Swindon (a) 3-1 - probably the last very good performance this season - pity we couldn't keep it up. Colchester (h) 1-0 An ugly win against a (relegated) team - who had plenty of chances to have handsomely beaten the Gills. Bradford (h) 3-0 Two early goals put Gills in control - good result against a vastly improving side. Wigan (a) 2-3 Another two goal lead wasted - very poor defending after being 'comfortable' Nelson won't be selling too many goalkeeping videos ! Doncaster (a) 2-2 Yet again a two goal lead thrown away - in the end Gills a little lucky to come away with a point. Peterborouh (h) 2-1 A reasonably good performance - in a match involving the two top scoring sides in the division ( THEN ! ) Blackpool (A) 0-1 Rubbish fom what I was told by an unfortunate attendee ( thankfully I wasn't there ) Swindon (h) 0-0 Another load of rubbish - with the 'first touch' just not good enough. Barnsley (h) 2-1 Gills were better - but it was a slightly lucky win - but stopped Barnsley gaining an 8th straight win. Oldham (a) 1-2 Gills were really poor -against a team 23rd in the league Chesterfield (h) 1-2 Lost to another lowly club - more rubbish. Fleetwood (a) 1-2 RUBBISH - at least we're being fair to all the teams at the bottom - by helping them out with a few points ! Scunthorpe ((a) 0-0 - better - I would have fallen asleep if it wasn't for the sleet ! Crewe (h) 3-0 A win - but Crewe, by now were so bad that a team of one legged blind donkeys could have beaten them. Southend (a) 1-1 To be fair - a good performance - - but this was a 'derby' and THAT probably spurred our team - why can't they 'up' their game EVERY game ? Bury (a) 1-0 - Gills got a lucky break and then held out - I suppose at this stage of the season you shouldn't complain ! So I won't. Coventry (h) 0-0 Gills set themselves up not to lose - and achieved the objective - thus keeping us (just) in the play-offs. Sheffield Utd (a) 0-0 A repeat performance of the Coventry game - again no real complaints ( although I'm beginning to run out of toilet paper ). Walsall (h) 1-2 Very good in first half - then rubbish in 2nd---- why ??? Port Vale (h) 0-2 What's another word I could use for 'rubbish' - that wouldn't take as long to type ? Rochdale (a) 1-1 A good point - but Gills continued to struggle to create chances - I think they need a satnav to find the opposition's goal. ( I missed this one - didn't want to waste two more days of my life so soon after wasting two other days in the previous week ) Shrewsbury (h) 2-3 Nelson mistake, a late deflected winner, awful referee - all gone wrong. There you go Lenny - I 'll let you decide if ( how much ) I have wasted my time & money this season - (so far) ----- not including this post !
alwaysright - excellent post, those first few games showed what we are capable of and we played in a style that appeared awesome, but then...
Excellent report on season really shows that we were lucky to be anywhere near the play offs in truth.
brb Yes - and no ! I have tried to be fair in my one line assessment of each game. I have not used the words 'rubbish' and 'poor' lightly -- because I didn't want people getting ahead of themselves in terms of aspirations -- which cannot always be based on a few results. People will have different opinions as to where we have 'gone wrong' - or what we were doing that was 'right'. I've said several times that we are what we are - a 3rd division team that occasionally flatters to deceive and had the occasional success in the cup. ( along with the humiliations ). Realistically, we won't change that without some sugar daddy coming in to plough money into the Club. As much as I would like Gillingham achieve the success of other smaller clubs ( eg Bornemouth ) - we won't until (if) we inherit serious money. Supporters need to accept our limitations ( both financial and skill levels ), and decide if they are going to spend their recreational time and money at Priestfield Stadium. Yesterday's game didn't give me the result I wanted - but at least the performance level - the endeavour was 'there' - and I can't fault the effort ( even if the execution wasn't brilliant ) - and for me - that 'honest commitment' to the challenge is 'everything' (but a minimum requirement), - and 'that' is not me being unambitious for the Gills -but just being pragmatic as to what is realistic.
Have looked at were you have been and God knows how much it has cost you to see these matches, have looked at your appraisals of each match, and you agree why the decline, have there been bonuses to loose ???? was a rumour when Crossmark was in charge Xmas and easter bonneses to loose as we could not afford to go up
BRB agree a great summary, but still why the sudden decline, same players, agree at one time no Dack but should not have been the decline of the goal scoring spree we had
allbluelenny - but it's not the same players as the wins against Sheffield United, Bradford & Wigan in August and that's my point, I mentioned in another thread, no Jackson for example against Shrewsbury, the inclusion of Cody, the inclusion of Ehmer...etc - I'm not getting at any of those players, I'm just saying it's not the same team starting, people look too closely at now and not what we had back in August. Draw from that what you will, but I know what I conclude from it. JE even partially put it right against Rochdale, yeah not great but at least it was a point, in fact the only point in the last four games....so what does he do against Shrewsbury, yeah call it bad luck, but do we also call it bad luck we went into complete freefall. You tinker you pay the penalty, albeit I hasten to add that some of that was out of JE's hands, so I'm not getting at the manager, I'm just applying what I see. But we all know these days if you are a ruthless manager it costs you your job
I'm quite happy us being a division three side, something only the older generation may understand, tired of today's elite, Sky, money, glory hunters, there are many benefits to being in League One next season along with some possible decent fixtures, something most plastics will never understand. I'm sure you know me well enough alwaysright to know that I don't base my opinions on ambition, just general Gills chatter nothing more.
Brb i totally share your sentiments yes i want millwall to go up but i dont want us to go up if we are not going to be able to compete our last 3 seasons in the championship were bloody awful. i love the championship its the best of our 4 leagues but i want to compete if we cant i would much rather we dont go up. this season with our run in the JPT and actually winning games and watching our youngsters come through has been brilliant i have enjoyed every bit of it
Actually Lenny -I've missed 4 (away) matches - but I have spent a lot of time & money following the Gills. Some would say I've wasted both ! But ( with my realistic viewpoint of our limitations ) - ALL I've asked ( expected ) is an honest commitment. You wouldn't buy a gadget and not expect it to work - even if it wasn't 'top of the range'. The same applies to our players. If the team work honestly, within its capacity, I can accept defeat as well as victory - and will come to the next match. It is a philosophy that some people can't accept - but it's only a game of football ! With regards to the Grossmark rumours about not being able to afford to be promoted - they were rife - and I'm not sure if the principal isn't the same today ! The monetary rewards aren't great for each club. Wages start to 'explode' along with admission prices. ( Mr. Scally raised them 33% overnight when we went into the Championship ). Football still isn't being helped with the disparity of the distribution of its wealth - where 95% goes to the Premiership. That sort of financial inequality will always dictate the 'standard' of player we will have at Gillingham - but whether it's a Rolls Royce or a pedal cycle, I expect the wheels to go round if I pay to put air in the tyres. Whereas I expect a Rolls Royce to work superbly, I do expect a pedal cycle to sustain a puncture - unfortunately, at Gillingham, our tyres have become deflated too often this season - especially when the road got a bit bumpier.
brb - I totally understand your footballing viewpoint - and I try to be as honest with mine. I do ask that our players work only with honesty. And that wouldn't change whatever league we're in. I too hate 'glory hunters' - because they (usually) don't have any real loyalty to the Club - and weren't around pre 1995 when our attendances slumped to 3000 or so - and I doubt if any of them would have cared about the impact of our club being liquidated. Even on Saturday I saw several people (who I had not seen before at Priestfield) - coming in late, ( some were dragging their kids ), staring at their tickets - looking up to see where their seat might be situated - going to the wrong section - needing a steward to help etc --- this didn't just happen in the GRS but I saw it occur across from me, in the Medway stand. I'm not saying these people were 'glory hunters , and I appreciate that they came in for 'Kids for a £1', but if any other shop was visited 'once a year' by its' customers, it wouldn't be expected to have much financial success. Whilst I understand about financial restraints -- and rising prices, partly caused by the disproportionate sharing of TV money, these customers that come in once a year, demonstrated their need for value for money. Perhaps we have become a bit like the leading supermarkets - where our prices haven't given the value for the honestly earned money people want - so they've stopped 'shopping' at Priestfield - and will only return at sale times. This presents us with a real problem - because once people start to economise, it can become a habit not to spend in the future. The sort of money one person has to spend watching one L1 football match can finance a TV 'package' that gives access to unlimited global fixtures. You can't blame people for making that decision - but, I too am 'old school' and will want to watch my (ex) home town team - but not if they've got no air in their tyres - eventually I will throw away my bicycle and buy a Rolls Royce. ( I reckon I could with the money I've spent on GFC ).
I would like to thank you so much for not just replying, but being honest with your opinions, may we be able to follow the Gills for a long time, that is one thing I would like to thank Mr Scally for, Saving our club
Well I'm not relishing Accrington again next year - a bit of an awful ground - at least they've got one ! And, even when I moan about Mr.Scally, I have to give credit that his shrewd business sense is the only reason why our Club existed after 1995. It must be difficult for him - I'm sure he wants 'success' - but the need not to bankrupt uus ia paramount.
