Gillingham v Swindon Town Official Matchday Thread

[Shaw Rosso]

Fair play to him

Sounds like a player that does actually give a shit. Shame some people find it necessary to groan every time the ball goes within 5 yards of him. It sounded like he gave everything today, although I am fully prepared to be told otherwise as I was not in attendance. The sad thing is, with Grant Hall likely to miss a few weeks he will become the scapegoat again. Fucking sick of the negativity shown towards him, embarrassing is an understatement. He will never be Roberto Carlos but at least he gives a shit, I wonder how many of the other 10 that started along side him feel the same way.

Jay Mac for captain, perhaps Ward can concentrate on defending then.

[Abrahammer]

I'm not sure about that.

After a shaky first few weeks of the season he is generally considered to have been our best defender this season. Now you could argue that isn't a hard achievement but I'd like to think the rational fans amongst can see he has had a good season. Of course there are plenty of the irrational types around.

Totally agree about him for captain, those post match quotes are evidence enough of his suitability.

[tans]

Bet he dont play again after that, Power will lock him the shed or something

[nochee]

“We’re giving ourselves a mountain to climb with stupid, sloppy goals too many times now. We keep seem to be saying the same things every week and I think there are a lot of people getting tired of it – not just the fans but us as well.

“We’re not happy at all and personally I’m not happy at all either. People do digged out but people just don’t learn from their mistakes. I don’t know what we’re going to do, it’s very disappointing."

Thanks. Straight honest talking, got to respect that more than the usual spiel from Cooper.

[chalkies_shorts]

JMac has been Jeckyll and Hide this season - from match to match and from one minute to the next. You can see the good or you can see the bad. The one thing that is stonkingly obvious is that the problems in defence stem from the centre regardless of whether its a centre 2 or 3. JMac makes a hell of a better wing back than I thought he would. He was always a Jamie Vincent clone under PdC but seems to play with a lot of freedom now. Nate Dog is / was good in a back 4 but is bollox as a wing back.
We need to sort the centre of defence out and I'd happily see the back of both Ward and Hall. Ward just isn't a leader this season and Hall just hasn't cut it. He may have potential and he may be a ball playing defender but it counts for shit if he's crap in the air, gets caught in possession and needs to man the fuck up.
We need a leader in the centre of midfield - a Foley type - a fucking horrible little cunt who kicks the fuck out of anything and is up for a scrap.
Overall though we've exceeded my expectations. The bad news is that the issues we have have been glaringly obvious for some time but fuck all has yet been done to rectify them.Will it be done in this window???

[Not that Nice If I'm Honest]

Im in Rochester waiting for a pizza......it will show eventually....unlike an away goal....

Fucking hopeless today....i say it once, I say it a 1000 times, if it ain't working change it.....NOT when its too late, two goals down and the games gone FFS...

After Tuesday there is no defending that today.....all that went were let down.

Roll on the fucking home games!

Flash - was it as bad as Stevenage ?

[Not that Nice If I'm Honest]

True...I think we mostly said at the start of the season this side would struggle on the road, especially away at hoofball merchants like Stevenage on a wet Tues/Weds. We do though need a win on Saturday, because I'm not sure this squad has the mental strength to deal with a major slide...

I was at Stevenage, and to be honest, I don't think hoofball is fair.

They totally outplayed and out fought us, and although they played it long, it didn't look like hit and hope to me.
Direct, maybe, but not hoofball.

We were just rubbish

[@mwooly63]

What did Jay Mac say in his interview? I heard it was a bit more no holes barred

Jmacs interview

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01pbgbs

17 minutes in

[THE FLASH]

Flash - was it as bad as Stevenage ?

Pikeys were better than Stevenage but with two up top we would of pressed them more.

[ronnie21]

Just a few reflections - and I was not there! - but it seems glaringly obvious where our problems away from home are and if the manager has any guts he will sort it out, if he is allowed to and that I very much doubt.  If Ranger plays he must have another player up alongside him, Nile loses interest too quickly if he is isolated.  We have been poor defensively all season, more so on our travels - but our home form papers over the cracks.  Consecutive defeats against Stevenage and the caravan dwellers are hard to take, a point from each of the games would have been satisfactory I think - but we were never really in with a shout.  And things could have been a lot worse as we really shouldn't have won either of our last two home games on the balance of play.  But the biggest concern for me is the total lack of passion shown, and that is something the management have to address and address quickly.

[Bob's Orange]

Gills are only 5 points behind us now.

A few weeks ago if you saw the fixtures Stevenage, gillingham and Shrewsbury in consecutive games you would be rubbing your hands.

[adje]

I know its revolutionary but I think we should go 4-4-2 in our next away game;
Wes;Barthram,Branco,Ward,JMAC;Pritchard,luongo,Kasim,Barker;DNG,Storey

[sonicyouth]

Just a few reflections - and I was not there! - but it seems glaringly obvious where our problems away from home are and if the manager has any guts he will sort it out, if he is allowed to and that I very much doubt.  If Ranger plays he must have another player up alongside him, Nile loses interest too quickly if he is isolated.  We have been poor defensively all season, more so on our travels - but our home form papers over the cracks.  Consecutive defeats against Stevenage and the caravan dwellers are hard to take, a point from each of the games would have been satisfactory I think - but we were never really in with a shout.  And things could have been a lot worse as we really shouldn't have won either of our last two home games on the balance of play.  But the biggest concern for me is the total lack of passion shown, and that is something the management have to address and address quickly.

Why would he not be allowed to 'sort it out'? If we're unable to sign players it's because we're skint and there's no sense spunking money away to achieve a position in midtable

[Reg Smeeton]

Gills are only 5 points behind us now.

A few weeks ago if you saw the fixtures Stevenage, gillingham and Shrewsbury in consecutive games you would be rubbing your hands.

Hardly...the analysis a few weeks back, was that the second half of the season would be shaped by how we might do away at the lower table home strugglers like Gills and Stevenage and then how we might do against stronger teams at home like Cov and Posh. The worry always was that on the evidence of losing at other strugglers like Sheff U, Shrews and Oldham, we might very well not get much on the road anywhere, and so it's proved.  However on the upside we passed the Cov and Posh test both massive wins, providing a bit of breathing space. Had we lost those 2 we'd now be 4 points above Notts County and looking over our shoulder.

I would say it's entirely possible we'll maybe only pick up a couple of points on the road before the season's end....leaving us to find 4 wins and a draw at the CG....probably coming from these fixtures Sheff U, Shrewsbury, Oldham, Crawley, ColU, Bradford, definitely doable, but could well be tight, and a McMahon style late season meltdown may just be the sort of thing this squad can't cope with.

[Nomoreheroes]

Having listened to the Cooper and McEverley interviews I was trying to work out who they thought were at fault ? What I picked out was:

- Cooper not happy with lack of effort from Ranger. Comments about needing someone who runs around and tries for the team. Mentioned that he was dominated all game by the centre half
- Cooper mentioning that we didn't win a header in the box from which they scored. He then praised Branco and was lukewarm when the interview suggested McEverley played well. McEverley however, seemed to be blaming other who don't seem to learn. Was that a dig at Hall? Or was it Thompson who people have said has been poor of late?
- Cooper said that some needed a rocket, but he wasn't sure whether they would respond. Easy to think Ranger might be one, but who are the others?
- Cooper commented on being criticised for not getting a response from his last 1/2 time team talk. He said that today he pointed some fingers and there was an improvement in the second half. So who improved?
- When I have listened to games over the last couple of weeks, I haven't heard much about Luongo or N'Guessan. Are they people who aren't learning or wont respond to the hairdryer treatment? Or are they just doing the donkey work that doesn't often get noticed or appreciated?

Can anyone give player ratings to shed some light on this or any other points?