2011 Prediction League; Game 7 Gillingham FC (away)

Div3North · 04-09-2011, 23:57

Gillingham FC

V

Accrington Stanley

Prediction League – Game 7; v Gillingham (away)

Is it churlish to question, so early in the season, the quality of the side currently lying 6th in League Two? The Gills’ present record is P6 W3 D1 L2 F8 A7, with 10 points in the bag; on the face of it, the only bad news – the 1-0 defeat at Brighton in the First Round of the Carling Cup – could have been expected, and after their first 4 games in the League they had 3 wins and a draw to their name.

And there, perhaps, is the clue. Their season kicked off with a 1-0 win at home against Cheltenham, and they followed that with a 2-1 win at Crewe, a 2-2 draw at Barnet (who they play again in Round 2 of the JPT), and a resounding 3-0 win over Plymouth (and many more sides are likely to do that

) To put it another way, they beat teams currently lying 11th (the Robins), 20th (the Alex) and a hapless and fairly hopeless 24th and last (the Pilgrims); their draw was against Barnet – at the moment, 19th. When you pitch them against the big boys, the story changes; a 3-0 defeat at 2nd placed Rotherham (now minus Adam le Fallover

), and then a 1-0 home loss to 5th placed Shrewsbury, albeit it to a last-minute penalty; the only side with a plus goals difference they’ve done anything against is Cheltenham (+1). Are they good value for 6th place? The jury’s out, might I suggest?

Back for his second spell as Gaffer, manager Andy Hessenthaler (the oldest player ever to represent Gillingham

) wielded the big sword back in the summer; eight were released, including Josh Gowling and John Nutter (who played more than 150 games at the KRBS Priestfield Stadium), both of whom went to Lincoln; two keepers (Alan Julian, who signed for Stevenage, and ex-Ebbsfleet stopper Lance Cronin – he was in goal at Fortress Crown last October, when we marmalised them 7-4

– who’s signed for Bristol Rovers); and 33 year old, 6’ 5” Barbadian striker Mark McCammon. Hess must have been fairly choked when another five refused new offers and moved on (sound familiar?

), including Adebayo ‘Pieman’ Akinfenwa

, back to the Cobblers; central midfielder Kevin Maher, who went to the Daggers; midfielder Chris Palmer, who signed for Burton Albion; and winger Andy Barcham, who joined The Iron, and got their second goal against us in the Carling, and their only goal against PNE. By the way, did you see that Bobby Grant has netted 6 already, 2 in the Carling and 4 in the League, making him the Div One top scorer (jointly with Ryan Lowe of Sheff Wed, although all his goals were scored for Bury)?

In came 9, amongst whom were midfielder Charlie Lee (who already has 3 yellow cards) and winger Chris Whelpdale, both of whom were on loan there last season, and both signed from the Posh; defender Matt Fish and keeper Ross Flitney from Hessenthaler’s old club Dover Athletic; 31 year old defender Andy Frampton (wasn’t he the lead singer with The Herd?

) from Millwall, promptly made skipper; striker Adam Birchall, also from Dover, where he hit the net 45 times last season

; and Argentinian keeper Paulo Gazzaniga (19) from Valencia (Hesenthaler said of him, “He’s impressed in pre-season, but he’s not the finished article yet”. Thanks, Gaffer

) ………. What’s the Spanish for ”Over ‘ere, son, on me ‘ead”?

7 games, eight goals scored; Danny Kedwell has two (penalties), Danny Spiller has two, and four others have one each, including Luke Rooney, who has as many red cards as goals. If I were them, I might be more worried by the fact that they’ve got 3 in a game once (v Plymouth, which sort of doesn’t count

), two twice (Barnet and Crewe), one goal once, and that they’ve failed to score three times already, including their last two games.

In 2008/9 we lost both games against them, and didn’t score in either; they went up, but came straight down again; 2009/10 we met them in the FA Cup 3rd Round (my goodness, they were poor), and a John Miles goal in the 81st minute saw them off (whatever happened to him?); 2010/11 we murdered them at our place in that never to be forgotten 7-4 thumping

(I was there!), but lost the return 3-1. Personally, I think it was the 7-4 which gave Wynonie The Voices ………..

The deadline for entries is, as ever, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 10th September. 7-4 again?

8-2, just for Wynonie?

0-0? They’ve got a squad of 29, apparently; we haven’t ……… They’re ahead of us at the moment, but not scoring hats-full, and on a bad run ………… Is this when the promotion push really starts? Could be ……. What d’you reckon?

Good luck to everyone ………… and thanks for playing!