Swindon Town v Gillingham Official Matchday Thread

[Batch]

fucking bizarre sub. El abd has been our best defender, my mom

[joteddyred]

If El Abd isn't injured that's an utterly shit substitution.

Thompson needs replacing, he's been struggling all game.

Fundamentally Gillingham are working harder than us and for each other.  We're second to every ball.

[Flashheart]

Are we going down again now?

[Batch]

maybe. poor defending again. gills were better mind

[Nick Bamosomi]

Are we going down again now?

Of course.

[Reg Smeeton]

Are we going down again now?

The good little run had bought us a bit of breathing space, so games against teams like Gills and Burton, become a bit of a free shot.

Replicate the first half of the season in the second, points wise and we'll just about be OK, but no room for complacency, as with the likely wheeling and dealing to be done in Jan, who knows what we'll look like.

By way of seeing what complacency can do, we are in exactly the same position as 10/11, 28 points from 23 games and we know how that ended up.

[lambourn red]

Completely outclassed in every position they were stronger ,quicker and more skilful .  Gladwin just does not look interested and Rodgers is not football league standard.

[Summerof69]

That was shite. But why did it take 85 mins  to take Rodgers off? After Robert was subbed by Kasim, which didn't make any sense, we had 3 out of 4 midfielders who don't/doesn't tackle. And bar the goal by Obika, the front two didn't did much. They certainly didn't hold the ball up, which Obika should be doing, especially on a day like today.

[ronnie21]

Didn't deserve anything from that game, outclassed, outbattled and failed to learn the lessons as the game went on.  The annoying thing was we gifted them the goals by poor defending and a lack of communication.  Thought the forwards were poor and there seemed to be a little friction between Branco and Rodgers at times.  Gladwin with the ball can be good, Gladwin without the ball is a liability - not interested unless the ball is placed at his feet.  Difference was magnified in the throw-ins, they took theirs quickly and always found a man - we took ages to take a throw and by the time the ball is delivered everybody is marked tight and possession was lost!  Poor today.

[sonicyouth]

Are we going down again now?

Probably not but that was shockingly poor. Half of them looked totally disinterested today.

ProZone stats show that the fox covered more ground than both Gladwin and Ajose.

[ronnie21]

Best thing about the second half was the fox that ran from the Town End straight onto Stratton Bank - got nearly as big a cheer as our solitary goal!!

[random_five]

That was a Cooper performance today.

[Batch]

Up to their equaliser it was a pretty even match, we were probably slightly on top. Great ball from (??) Gladders to release Obika and he slotted cooly home. But almost straight from kick off the Gills caught us sleeping and we left them pretty much unmarked in midfield to take time to pick a spot and thump home the equaliser. They were then well on top for 10 minutes, but we came back into it.

Unfortunately what looked like a keepers ball from a cross was headed into the path of a pikey, who missed it but the ball somehow found another to hit home. At half time I thought we'd pretty much matched them but slack defending had cost us.

But what a change in the second half. We were utter dross, a real throwback to the run that saw Cooper sacked. We were second best to everything, physically inadequate and pretty dire all over really. The third was a good strike, we allowed him too much space and maybe Vigs will be disappointed, but it was hit with power.

Onto the subs - all wrong. Robert wasn't great but was at least trying. I'd have taken off Rogers myself who at that point was merely disappointing. The el-abd one left me really thinking WTF though. Turnbull, playing poorly at left back was moved to the centre - and el abd who was playing well was taken off. I can see why the sub was made, to attack with more movement/pace down the left. But he should have taken Turnbull (or Branco) off no question.

It was a pointless move anyway. We seem obsessed by trying to play down the middle and ignore the easy balls wide.

When all is said and done, Gillingham have a better team than us, and played better than us. But it was a disappointing Town display.

[normy]

While I can't disagree with what's been said, the refereeing was as bad as I've ever seen today. It enabled them to commit a series of obvious fouls to disrupt our pattern of play without freekicks to us, warnings, or yellows, for most of the game. A guy said to me after the game that he was an experienced referee assessor, and that was the worst display he'd seen at the CG, terrible.

I suspect they would have won anyway, but it was so blatant, and they took advantage of the ref's weakness.  

[theakston2k]

The only thing I'm going to say is that the goalkeeping coach and Luke Williams need to grow a fucking bran and stop all this short goal kick bollocks. It's clearly an instruction and in reality all it does put us under pressure and gives the other team momentum, and when it's not on Vigs doesn't have a clue what to do anymore. It just seems a fuckkng brain dead tactic....