Gills thread (a)

[Phil Whalley]

Doing okay here, defence handling List and Eaves, Johnny dealing with what gets through. Making progress down the wings but not much through the middle. Delivery into the box needs to be better.

[The Red Darreners]

Watching an uninspiring first half on the old iFollow. Heavy rain and no atmosphere at the Priestfield. Roughly 50/50 in terms of possession and chances. We're all too predictable, Gillingham break efficiently but constantly overhit their crosses.

Not enjoying the BBC Radio Kent commentary provided by iFollow. The commentators are the Kentish football equivalents of tSean Spicer and the even more delightful Sarah Huckabee Sanders, peddling their fake news with surreal references to Gillingham 'peppering our goal' and 'the gilt edged opportunity for the Gills'. In fact the men in blue scarcely got out of their own half in the last 25 mins.
Could go either way - or be 0-0 . it was ever thus. Southern commentators, eh? #SAD!

[cashman]

FOR me we need 3 pts tonight, hoping smyth or armstrong are introduced at some point soon enough.

[cashman]

Smyth is on thats good imho.

[cashman]

A point away is never a bad thing well done lads. KTF

[Exile on Spencer St]

Phew, good result given the circumstances and all the other results tonight.
Look forward to Phil’s summary.

[The Red Darreners]

They did OK second half - draw fair result. Conditions played their part in a rather dull encounter. Defence had to work hard at times. McConville had a fine game - love watching Clicker but he hangs on to the ball for too long too often, missing the opportunity for the easy pass.


Maxted made some good saves and in my view would have merited MOM. As our Kentish commentators began to recognise that we offered more of a threat second half, their chin music became less cocky and they seemed happy with the point at the end.


On to saturday's tough game, weather permitting.


KTF

[AccyMad]

Will happily take a point & a clean sheet especially in the poor conditions, hope we can build on it on Saturday - well played lads

[choirboy]

Thanks Darreners, (and Phil), for the updates and well done Stanley.

Our boys could have easily suffered a down turn after their fine performance against Derby on Saturday but it seems like they have performed well and dug in for a well earned away point.
Sounds like Johnni Maxted did us proud.
ON STANLEY ON

[Simpson]

I’d have taken a draw. Watched it on ifollow and thought we defended well. Strong running but also poor crossing down the right. Nothing else going forward or from midfield.
Whilst we only lost ground to Bradford who I expect to push on, the majority of clubs below us are scoring goals whereas we have not scored a league goal in the whole of January !

[Phil Whalley]

It was a hard-fought point, increasingly so as the game wore on. Both sides had their moments in the first-half, a Sean Mac long-ranger for us, but the closest to a goal was an Eaves skimmer from the right-hand side of the box that went just wide.

I thought both sides stepped it up in the second-half, Stanley were the first to have a sustained period of pressure which culminated in a Billy header cleared off the line by Eaves with the keeper beaten.

Then the Gills pushed us back for a while, during which Johnny made a couple of decent saves, tipping a free kick over the bar and then coming out to smother a shot at the far post.

On the whole a solid and determined performance from us, without really clicking into top gear attacking-wise. Coley did bring on Smyth with 15 mins left, switching to four at the back, but both he and Billy were feeding off scraps by this point as we weren't able to link up play from back to front as efficiently as we had at times earlier in the game. Callum had played as an all-out wing-back and was often deep in their half and the supplier of most crosses from the right, while the Don also made the occasional foray down the left.

Billy had a tough time of it against Zakuani, who for me is a tremendous centre-half at this level, although I reckon he must have asked Billy for his shirt at the end, so keen was he to keep hold of it during the game. MOTM will probably go to Johnny, and he deserved it for a totally competent and commanding performance - he made the saves you expected him to make, along with one or two that you thought he might not, caught crosses and kicked well.

But I also thought that Ben had an excellent game too, not only in the air but also in effectively coping with the pace of the Gills' wide men. A nod also to Coley for a good set-up - the presence further forward of the full-backs gave Sean Mac and Clicker the cover and support to drift inside to try and link with each other and Billy. Clear-cut chances from us were relatively few, but we looked quite fluid going forwards at times and we were never camped in our half for prolonged periods.