Yeovil Town (H) - 16 Aug 14

[fan_of_mulligan]

SECOND HALF.......................

Both sides made promising starts to the second half I remember Yeovil Town whipping a sensational cross from the left side of the pitch and I think it was Kieffer Moore who threw himself into a diving header and if he made contact then Yeovil Town would or equalized and moments that Danny Kedwell hooked the ball across Yeovil Town's Penalty Area to Joe Martin and that forced Yeovil Town to kick the ball into touch for a corner kick.

Gillingham's inability to defend set pieces is a real concern as we just seem to create our own defensive problems, this time we got lucky as AJ Leitch-Smith headers the ball over the crossbar, we really need two defensive lines and not one line that goes across the eighteen yard box, we cannot rely on playing for offside to get ourselves out of trouble because it just is not going to work, we need to be winning the first ball and have someone in a Gillingham Shirt in a position where we can win the second ball, one long defensive line doesn't allow us to do this, and really we're just giving ourselves one shot to get the ball clear and away from danger.

Gillingham won a penalty in the fifty third minute with a good three man passing move as Matt Fish played the ball back to Aaron Morris who played the ball to Jake Hessenthaler, Jake clipped the ball down the line to Matt Fish who played the ball inside to Aaron Morris who had made an over-lapping run, Aaron Morris checked back and was fouled inside the penalty area by Nathan Smith and Referee Lee Collins pointed to the penalty spot, up stepped Danny Kedwell and I had my fists clinched because 2 - 0 would give Gillingham a bit of a cushion and we could do with this penalty going into the back of the net, Danny Kedwell tries placing the ball into the bottom left corner of the net but Chris Weale saves Danny Kedwell's penalty but the rebound comes straight back out to Kedwell who sticks the ball into the back of the net for 2 - 0.

Now Yeovil Town had to go for it and the next 5 - 10 minutes are crucial and if Gillingham can whether the storm then we should have enough in us to go on and win the match from here, Antonio German has found himself in promising positions but his first touch has often let him down and there was a one v one chance available had German got his first touch spot on, the effort and commitment was there from Antonio German and you could not fault him for his work-rate, but the lack of quality was there for all to see, Me and Colin kept "chanting "Go On Antonio" because Antonio German has got the pace to run straight through the heart of Yeovil Town's defence, he just lacks the technical ability and awareness to pull it off.

When Antonio German was substituted in the sixty sixth minute he was rightfully applauded for his efforts, hopefully Brennan Dickenson can come on and stretch Yeovil Town's defence in the opposite direction and Brennan Dickenson might have more space to run into, Yeovil also brought on Sam Foley for Nathan Smith, in-between both substitutions AJ Leitch-Smith saw his shot on goal brilliantly blocked by Leon Legge as Gillingham looked to preserve there two goal lead.

Gillingham look content to defend the two goal lead, we defiantly got numbers back behind the ball and although it is taking us a few attempts to clear the ball every-time we are preventing Yeovil Town from scoring, but we're making hard work of defending every single Yeovil Town attack and at times defending is desperate, but it is enough to stop Yeovil Town from getting themselves back into the game.

Gillingham have to defend another set piece but this time a through-ball to AJ Leitch-Smith is quickly cut out by Stephen Bywater who quickly distributes the ball towards Danny Kedwell, but Kedwell has not got the pace to get on the end of Bywater's long kick down-field and the ball goes out of play for a throw on, Josh Pritchard, Luke Norris and Bradley Dack were all warming up in-front of us and two of these three might have come on yesterday, but with Matt Fish coming on for Josh Hare and Brennan Dickenson coming on for Antonio German we have only got one substitution left and Peter Taylor is not in any rush to make the third and final sub.

Seventy Seven minutes into the match and Yeovil Town nearly got themselves back into the match in fortuitous circumstances as a cross from the left wing position appeared to hit Stephen Bywater's foot and hit the outside of the post and go out for a corner kick, but maybe the cross was deflected on the way through to Stephen Bywater, either way Gillingham had got away with it but it meant that we had to defend another set piece, which we have not been convincing at but we seem to be getting away with it, Yeovil Town brought on Brendon Moloney for Nathan Ralph and I thought Brendon Moloney was going to play as a orthodox centre forward but Brendon Moloney played in what appeared to be his natural right back position.

Joe Martin looked liked he got his studs stuck in the turf and twisted when he went down injured because no-one challenged him or fouled him, let's hope Joe Martin's injury is nothing serious, but Josh Pritchard has come on for Joe Martin and Doug Loft has moved across to the left wing back position, Gillingham were so deep that I was shouting "Out Gills" far too frequently for my liking, Stephen Bywater caught a high hanging cross which was cheered as loudly as we celebrated a goal because that really did relieve the pressure that was building on our goal, Danny Kedwell was charging down loose balls in the final third and after seven minutes of stoppage time Gillingham had held out for the wing.

FULL TIME: GILLINGHAM 2 - 0 YEOVIL TOWN.

I forgot to mention Matt Fish's dipping volley which flashed across the face of goal and I just remembered it.

Not a entertaining game or a great performance from The Gills, but we have ended the week well and if you told us before the season started that Gillingham would lose to MK Dons 4 - 2 but recover to beat Yeovil Town 2 - 1 in The League Cup and 2 - 0 in the league then we would of taken that, six goals in the first three matches and five different goal-scorers in Danny Kedwell, Cody McDonald, Brennan Dickenson, Aaron Morris and Joe Martin suggests that Gillingham will score quite a few goals this season and that the goals will be spread around the team, although defensively we have much we can improve on - hopefully the clean sheet against Yeovil Town in the league gives us something to build on.

Fair play to the 222 Yeovil Town Supporters who turned up to the game yesterday but why was there 6 - 7 Yeovil Town Fans sitting in-front of me yesterday ??? - that was very off putting when your chanting "Come On Gillingham" and there chanting "Cone On Yeovil", thankfully there were no problems but it could of been oh so different, A attendance of 5,173 is disappointing and I think we could of offered a deal where if you went to Yeovil that entitled you to one ticket for The Newcastle United Game as that would of raised the attendance for our league games, instead of one big capacity crowd for The Newcastle United Match.

Not a great performance or a match where you can recall many clear cut goal-scoring opportunities, but a win, a clean sheet, two goals from a penalty and a free kick and our first three points will do nicely, hopefully McGlashan is back soon because we need an injection of pace in this Gillingham Side and without him or Dickenson starting then Peter Taylor has to play 3.5.2 / 5.3.2 so that we got two strikers up-front and enough cover in the middle of the park.

As for Yeovil Town, they really do look like a team who could suffer back to back relegation's this season, last season in The Championship they were the small fish in a big pond, but even this season there are clubs with a better budget then what they can realistically afford, Gary Johnson's task will be to keep Yeovil Town in League One because on the last two matches you do wonder where the goals are going to come from for Yeovil Town.

Good to see Peter Tyalor getting animated and frustrated on the sidelines, he was not happy about some of those refereeing decisions yesterday, but also I think this is now Peter Taylor's team so he can have a go more because this is his squad and his players (well almost because defensively Fish, Legge, Barrett, Davies and Martin are still under contract), maybe someone has told Taylor to be more animated or maybe he himself recognizes that he needs to do more from the technical area.

Stephen Bywater was My MOTM because the penalty save was the turning point, also when was the last time we played three different goalkeepers in three matches in a row ???

[Garawa]

My Goodness Lee that is one heck of a report!

Rimshot, the Press Association stats are the only ones that matter and are reported by the BBC among others. They had the possession at 54 - 46 to us. These other stats do my head in! Only ONE guy is responsible, a great guy called Andy Cramp. He feeds the data via a phone link which is then broadcast by an operator to major sources (bizarrely including Sky) and the link helps to prevent breaks from poor internet signals. Yet some organisations like ESPN who had nobody at the ground report something different! In other words make it up! Why can't they just use the official data?

[gillsfan1066]

Er thanks, so all in all we came away with the points which is great, but the way were playing it seems that our position in the table tonight , might well be our finishing position at the end of the season, if we don't start playing better footie in the weeks to come?
Oh well it's along season so GO Gillingham, lets get it out of first gear and into second.

[Garawa]

I think Yeovil were very poor but often we fail to raise our game against those sort of teams. Last season we often saw a 0-1 result when a poor side like ourselves snatched a late win. Had they scored the penalty maybe it might have been different who knows but I thought we broke up the play nicely and created chances and as the players get used to playing together that will only improve. I would be happy with a top half finish to be honest, it is a very new and very young team and will take a bit of time to really find their feet. It is established sides that tend to do well in this league not necessarily ones with the best players.

[sotongill]

My Goodness Lee that is one heck of a report!

Rimshot, the Press Association stats are the only ones that matter and are reported by the BBC among others. They had the possession at 54 - 46 to us. These other stats do my head in! Only ONE guy is responsible, a great guy called Andy Cramp. He feeds the data via a phone link which is then broadcast by an operator to major sources (bizarrely including Sky) and the link helps to prevent breaks from poor internet signals. Yet some organisations like ESPN who had nobody at the ground report something different! In other words make it up! Why can't they just use the official data?

Gary , I believe it was Fox News in the States that won a court case a decade back where the ruling was that they had no duty to report news accurately or correctly ( notwithstanding other laws such as defamation of character ) , so no real surprise that the Media increasingly make up things - perhaps our friend in the colonies , 1066 , has more detail on this .

[Garawa]

In which case then why bother to get just the one stat right - the score? Gillingham 16 - 11 Yeovil was the score Gillsfan!

Just for reference, anyone who looks at or is interested in game stats, please ignore any that are not supplied by the Press Association (or Opta as they are now part of that). If you want to view them then you can't go much more wrong than the Gillingham page on the BBC Sport website.