Regarding todays game vs the Gills.... JW said: "We tried to match them in the way we set up, but we succumbed to two really good goals and I've got no complaints over the way my players went about their job. We are a relatively young team, but the players showed fantastic spirit and desire. We're not going to win every football match, but if we play in that manner every week, then we will give ourselves the best chance. I'm going to go home and sleep well tonight because the players have gone and given me everything in an effort to win the game. The quality we needed to win it, however, was not quite there, particularly in the final third. We didn’t have that little break in the penalty box that we had against Plymouth. If we can improve on that, then I hope we can go and give Fleetwood a game next weekend."
The lads gave it a real go today, but for all the huff and puff and first half possesion we always looked like comming up short, no goal threat as such other than JJ's effort which hit the post, second half not quite as good for us but by then the game was already won. This game summed up where we are the Gills top of the league and winning without being convincing, us bottom of the league, a new manager bringing a bit more belief which resulted in a workmanlike display, unfortunetly for me they were always a little bit more street wise which resulted in them winning comfortably in the end.
I have to say that unless the Gills just had a bad day the playing standard gap between top and bottom of the league is not that great. They certainly didn't look convincing. They scored before the Rovers woke up from their dressing room slumbers which allowed them to sit back a bit until they were gifted another when Kenneth went down injured in his tackle on the scorer. Their back four won the battle of the head tennis as Rovers persisted in looping the ball forward to an outnumbered attack. They also to a man hacked long balls forward from defence if the ball appeared in their half. Why did it take forty five minutes for our goal keeper to realise that long airborne kicks to the smallest player on the left wing of the pitch usually result in a new sequence of Gill's posession? After the break we had roll outs to our own team and looked better for it. Somewhere around half way thro' the second half Rovers woke up to the fact that the Gills weren't much better than themselves and played the ball on the ground and IMO looked a much better team with that style of play. Why did no-one seem to want to carry the ball at their defence??? But by then it was too late, the Gills defence protected their lead and the game was over. If only JJ's shot which hit the post, then rolled along the goal line, had turned left a bit sooner before it spun out for a corner!! But then football is full of whatifs. We have to look in the book and we lost!! End of.
Hitting the net is the big problem. We look a bit tighter and better organised now, but unless we start scoring goals it's always going to be a struggle. Ward should try to sign someone like Rene Howe!I always thought he was a bit of a handful and he's proved very good at this level.
Guy next to me was a Gills fan and thought the game was awful,they took there goals well 1st one no one tackled the player poor concede 2nd goal route one well taken down excellent shot. In the second half they shut up shop and we were toothless could have played another 90 mins without scoring Both Tom and Richards were poor up front if we do not get a decent striker we are definately dropping into the conference. Why Parkes played in midfield when Norburn was on the bench I dont understand especially as CJ mentioned the player was happy to get back in CD given his lack of pace. Rene wanted to much money to return to Rovers must have thought Chuckle was still manager. Saph disagree Gills were much better organised than Rovers, allowed us to have the ball in areas where we could not hurt them midfield dominated ours especially no 7 no 2 and 24 for Gills. Ward will have an uphill task recruiting as decent striker given cash avaliable and our league position I appreciate that we hit the post and almost scored from a set peice but that was it we had the ball but no creativity or ability to threten there goal. Ward is not deceiving us Plymouth were not a good team hence they are 23rd in the league we can have the ball for long periods of the game but it is what you do with it that decides the outcome of games we did nothing with it,at one stage yesterday we could not get the ball off of the Gills they passed it around at will while we stood around without a tackle going in,The second half we were poor.
