Still #1

[gillsfan1066]

Still on Top, best of the best of the best, but man this must be dam painful stuff to have to pay 20 odd quid to watch. Two shots on goal all afternoon ? Oh well another point in the bag.

[Noircat]

I went to Aldershot. We weren't much cop. No potency up front and we should have been ahead on 4 mins. Kedwell should have wrapped it up in last 4. German lively and Dack looked more interersted than more seasoned players. We have to sweep Plymouth aside-anything less will be an abomoination as there then follows very tough gtames at Exeter and Morecanbe to both of which I am going. NC

[gillsfan1066]

Thank you Sir for the info, I find it amazing that the players seem unable to "get up" for the closing few games of the season, top of the division only 10 games or so to go, a possible 33 points available and I can see if we continue playing like this we will get maybe 14 giving us a total of 80 for the season and we sneak in taking the 3rd auto spot, but who the hell knows?.
I assume players contracts have bonuses in them for promotion and here they are just going through the motions ? Maybe M.A. is doing the" don't get excited lads" bit, the old reverse psychology "thingamajig," If he is it sure as hell is working on me, I drunk 1 3/4 bottles of wine at 9 o clock in the morning with me breakfast yesterday while that fiasco was being played out.

[mark8364]

Kedwell seems to be getting slagged off for not scoring just after Legge equalised! Let's not let the fact that in Martin Allen's words ''the keeper pulled off a world class save'' get in the way!

[Noircat]

It was a good save but Keds was very close to the goal. Martin Allen in his comment says words to the effect that this was a hard worked perrformance against a side fighting for their lives. My point is we were much better than them in terms of players on the pitch but we didn't make it count. NC

[Garawa]

I think Kedwell's chance being point blank meant he could only put it in one place and the reaction from the keeper was superb. Had Nelson done it we would be singing his praises. Dack had an almost identical chance against Oxford, our only decent chance of note.

The team isn't freely scoring or creating chances and yet Kedwell seems to be the scapegoat. What about Burton? He has gone very quiet lately, he hasn't had a single shot on target in the last two games and only managed 1 off target. Very unfair on Kedwell given what he gives to the side and yet the side AS A WHOLE are struggling to perform and he is the reason! Very odd.

[Noircat]

Speaking only as I saw it (and I may have been wiping a tear from my eye) Deon Burton should have put us 1 nil up v Shots in the first 4 mins. He struck the side netting when extremely well placed. Bradley Dack should have scored v Oxford from the range he had-if he had put his foot through it he would have. Danny K should have done the same. Sure it was a good save but we are top of the league and finishing these chances is usually something that goes with this territory. So there are 3 occasions where it hasn't and for which we have lost potentially 3 points. Also chances in what is generally an arid landscape of chances (thought I would call it that rather than drought).
I am not being a moaner but when Dack missed his and Deon missed his I said on both occasions to my companion-I hope we get another chance like that rather than be looking back at it in xyz (80) minutes. And it came to pass.
The side contains goalscorers. The opposition in many instances is not great. We didn't score at York. It was said to be a good point. I disagreed at the time given that York had let in 8 in 10 days and we could not score 1. Now they have sacked their manager cos they havent won in 10 or whatever. So was that a good point? I say no.
We should be powering forward for significant periods of the 90 minutes. We did so for the first 5 and the last 15 on Sat. In between-we never looked like scoring.

Plymouth............please don't any one from anywhere start using words like-they will be fighting for their lives and this will be tough for us-Plymouth are where they are because of the way they have played for 33 games. We are where we are for the same reason. Surely we aren't going to be one of the very few sides who havent beaten them at home. I am not even prepared to contemplate any negative thinking or any result other than a win-and I hope everyone who runs out at 3pm is of the same mind.
NC

[gillsfan1066]

Men against boys, I have it on good authority that Scally has put up a shot and goal bonus for this week, a quid a shot and a tenner a goal, so expect the Blue and Red machine to be peppering the Plymouth goal for 90 minutes , even Nelson will probably get a shot or two in,2-0 after 45 minutes and a final score of ..........
GILLINGHAM 5 , PLYMOUTH 1.

[Rimshot]

It's odd that we are top and yet no-one seems to have much confidence in the next few games. I guess that's because we can't really get our heads round the home/away form patterns that are so alien to GFC fans . Which prompts me to ask ...what's your best memory of an away win ?

Mine is a 3-0 result at Halifax where we scored straight from kick off, had two more shots at goal ( both successful ) in the entire game and retained about 10% possession.

I was a lone GFC fan in the popular side 'stand' and only avoided a lynching from the 'flat-caps' because I was with a couple of locals. On the way out one grizzled old chap turned to me and said 'tha's coom a long way to see that load o' crap'. Hadn't the heart to say I was staying with friends about 2 miles along the road.

[Goalmouth]

There's loads Rimshot, but one that always comes to mind, apart from the draw at Everton in 1984, was at Selhurst Park. Palace were well clear at the top of the league and we were not so well placed. Danny Westwood scored for us and then Palace laid siege to our goal and I suggest it was the best performance of Hillyard's Gills career. He played a blinder, but then he was one of the best goalies I can remember playing for us.

As for Plymouth on Saturday? Barnet came here and beat us when they were bottom. I'd like to know what has changed since before Christmas when we scored 4 goals at home on 4 occasions. But I wouldn't be surprised at any result on Saturday, just as I wouldn't be surprised if we beat Exeter away considering both teams' home and away records.