Gillingham FC Forum

Can we make it two wins in a week against Yeovil? What Team would you play for this game?

The two clubs first met in the FA Cup back in 1949 but it wasn't until 2005 that they met in the league.

Of the 10 fixtures the sides have played each other in, the Gills have won 2 (the latest win being on Tuesday) and the Yeovil have won 5.

There have been 3 draws between the clubs and all 3 have ended with a 0-0 scoreline.

Yeovil have won 1 of their previous 11 competitive away fixtures.

After last season's 10 goal loan top-scorer (Ishmael Miller), the player in the squad with the most goals from last season is James Hayter (8).

3:00
Kick-Off

3:22
Penalty conceded by Legge, the 5th he has conceded for the club. SAVED BY BYWATER!

3:40
GOAL! Gillingham 1-0 Yeovil: Martin

3:45
Yeovil drew 3 and lost 20 of the 23 games they conceded the opening goal in.

3:55
Half-time: 1-0

3:58
Bottom club Yeovil were behind at the break 10 times last season, 5 fewer than 5th placed Wigan however they only recovered to earn 2 points from them.

4:18
Penalty to the Gills after a foul on Aaron Morris.

4:19
GOAL! Gillingham 2-0 Yeovil: Kedwell
Danny Kedwell misses a penalty, only his 3rd from 23 penalties taken but scores from the rebound.

4:59
Full-time: 2-0

I think Gillingham will line up as follows.......................

---------------------------G.Morris-----------------------------------
------------Legge-----------Egan-------------Hause-----------------
Hare-----------------------------------------------------------Martin
-----------A.Morris------Hessenthaler-----------Loft------------------
------------------Kedwell-----------------Dickenson-----------------

Subs: Bywater (GK), Davies, McKain, Pritchard, Dack, Norris, German

Injuries will dictate the way Peter Taylor wants to line up and with Jermaine McGlashan out injured I am expecting Peter Taylor to stick with the 3.5.2 / 5.3.2 formation he played at Huish Park on Tuesday Night with Jake Hessenthaler and Danny Kedwell coming in for Bradley Dack and Luke Norris, other then those two changes the team really does pick itself because looking at the subs bench we really do look like we're down to the bare bones.

I will also add that I think Stephen Bywater has been signed as understudy to Glenn Morris, why offer Glenn Morris a contract and sign a goalkeeper on loan as cover for Stuart Nelson, that doesn't make any sense, we could of gone with one goalkeeper and used the loan market to cover Stuart Nelson if he was injured or suspended, or we would sign someone as Number Two and that's what we did when we signed Glenn Morris.

It say's a lot about Stephen Bywater's future at Millwall if there willing to loan him to us for the next five months.

Hopefully we can end the first week of the new Football League Season on a high and make it back to back win against Yeovil Town, COME ON THE GILLS!!!!!!!!

Listening to Peter Taylor on Gillsplayer he says McDonald,McGlashan,and Linganzi are definitely out tomorrow.Dickenson has a chance,and Fish should be in the Squad.

FOM`s Team looks right I think.Hopefully we can get the win,and our first three points of the season.

Four across the back, three goal scoring forwards, two wingers, a keeper, and Bobby Moore as a center half to control 4 acres of midfield, distribute the ball and hold the whole dam thing together.
Gillingham 3, Yeovil 1,thats my prediction, anything less and Taylor has to go, make way for Hessy,lol.

I thought it was a scrappy game,but i`m pleased we have got our first three points of the season.I think the turning point of the game was when Legge gave away the penalty,and Moore`s weak effort was easily saved by Bywater.From then on we looked better and we were rewarded a free kick outside of the area.Martin stepped up and put it straight in the top corner,not a bad way to celebrate his 150th appearance for the Club! Just before Half-time it could have been 2-0 as Yeovil couldn`t clear the ball away,and Legge`s header had to be tipped over the bar.Ten minutes after half-time we were awarded a penalty after Smith fouled Aaron Morris.Kedwell stepped up and his penalty was saved,but luckily he followed up and scored the rebound.

The downside of the game was the two injuries to Josh Hare,and Joe Martin.Hare looked like he got hit in the face with the ball and went off on the stretcher looking dazed,and Martin looked like he hurt his knee and also went off on the stretcher.We seem to be having no luck with injuries at the minute.Two wins in a week against Yeovil,and it is good to have our first three points of the season.

Stunning free kick by Martin. His kicking is getting better and better and very worrying not only how he went off but that he become the 3rd stretchered off (and the 4th to be badly injured it seems) from only 2 league games. Hope he is ok.

I think Yeovil made us look better, they weren't good at all really. Got to be pleased with the result, more wins then we had after something like 11 or 12 games last season, scored 2 in each with 5 different scorers when last season we had yet to score and its a solid start in my book.

Sky match stats give us only 33% possession! That can't be right surely ?

Match stats on ESPN say the same thing, made it sound like a pretty poor game with Gills having 6 shots with 2 on goal to Yeovils 11 with 1 on goal and a total of 11 fouls against GFC and 12 to Y T.
Still 3 points is 3 points any way you can get them, think we need to get it all together this week, couple of tougher teams coming up.
Injuries seem to be mounting up all ready, thats not good.

My Thoughts on Gillingham V Yeovil Town.....

Not a great performance from The Gills but we gladly take all three points against a Yeovil Town Side who look very likely to suffer back to back relegation's this season as there squad is not the strongest and they don't have the finances or fear factor Wolverhampton Wanderers or Peterborough United had, as those two could spend there way out of trouble.

I was surprised to to see Stephen Bywater selected over Glenn Morris, who I thought played exceptionally well in our 2 - 1 win against Yeovil Town at Huish Park and didn't deserve to be dropped but five minutes into the match and Stephen Bywater gathers a high dangerous cross and relieves some of the pressure that has been building on Gillingham's goal.

Eleven Minutes into the match and Josh Hare had to stretchered off and Matt Fish was substituted on in his place, Josh Hare blocked a cross with the side of his face but it was strange for Josh Hare to be substituted because of that, I thought Josh Hare might be seeing stars but would be able to continue but he was knocked out cold and our luck with injuries just seems to be getting worse and worse.

Yeovil Town had two chances in two minutes, AJ Leitch-Smith created the first goal-scoring opportunity in the 12th minute as he was able to cut inside Leon Legge far too easily and The Yeovil Town front-man ran across the whole Gillingham Back Three before teeing up Kevin Dawson and thankfully from our point of view Kevin Dawson scuffed the shot wide because if Kevin Dawson got a much stronger connection on the ball then I think Stephen Bywater would of been struggling, a minute later and Yeovil Town threatened our goal again, Jakub Sokolik beats Danny Kedwell in the air and Simon Gillett wins the ball in midfield Aaron Martin plays a floated through-ball to AJ Leitch-Smith who cuts inside Leon Legge again and this time AJ Leitch-Smith hits a low shoot through a crowd of bodies, but Stephen Bywater does well to dive low down his right to prevent Yeovil Town from opening the scoring.

In The Seventeenth Minute and Yeovil Town have been awarded a penalty kick, Chris Weale's long kick down-field is aimed towards Kieffer Moore and and The Yeovil Town Centre Forward's presence forces John Egan to header sideways, but Leon Legge's challenge on Ben Nugent is clumsy and Leon Legge has been having a mare so far because Kieffer Moore is winning the aerial battle and now Leon Legge has conceded the penalty, Kieffer Moore stepped up to take penalty responsibilities for Yeovil Town and the towering centre forward's penalty was poor into the bottom left corner of the net and Stephen Bywater dived the right way to keep Gillingham in the match - Peter Taylor's decision to start with Stephen Bywater in goal has turned out to be an inspiring choice so far.

That Penalty Save seemed to spark Gillingham into life as we started to have more possession of the ball, both Doug Loft and John Egan have tried to pick out Joe Martin on the left flank but for Egan's pass Joe Martin was offside and Doug Loft's pass was over-hit when really Doug Loft wanted to thread the ball through to Antonio German but German was standing in a offside position and this broke up our attacking play a bit.

And Twenty Five Minutes into the match and Doug Loft played a through-ball for Antonio German to run on to and German's cross to the far post was heading towards Danny Kedwell but Aaron Martin made a crucial interception, but despite that attempted effort for Gillingham it was still Yeovil Town who were in the ascendancy as Simon Gillett's through-ball to Kieffer Moore is over-hit and runs through to Stephen Bywater, Nathan Ralph plays an excellent through-ball to AJ Leitch-Smith and The Yeovil Town striker collides with Stephen Bywater, Bywater is OK to continue, but even if AJ Leitch-Smith got to the ball first the linesman had flagged for offside.

I don't like the way we defend corners and free kicks, we bring everyone back and over-crowd our own penalty area and this allows Yeovil Town to throw everyone forward, also when defending free kicks we just have one long defensive line and this gives us one chance to clear the ball, we ideally need a defensive line, two on the edge of the D of the penalty area and two on the halfway line, we just seem to create our own problems when we defend set plays, Peter Taylor was furious on the sidelines with some of the decisions that had not been awarded in our favour as there were some reckless challenges on Aaron Morris and Jake Hessenthaler and this was frustrating us Gillingham Supporters and frustration seemed to sum up the whole first half.

With Jermaine McGlashan out and Brennan Dickenson on the subs bench we just have not got a outlet, Danny Kedwell can hold the ball up and he will give it 100% but he isn't going to threaten Yeovil Town's defence in and behind with his pace, and while Antonio German is giving his all, he just has not the same level of pace or ability that Cody McDonald has and it means that Yeovil Town can continue to hit long balls towards Kieffar Moore and the number of times The Yeovil Town Centre Forward won the ball in the air must of been 15 - 20 times, if only someone in a Yeovil Town Shirt was anticipating where these headers were going and had someone anticipated the knock down then Gillingham would of been in deep trouble.

But thirty five minutes into the match and Gillingham take the lead against the run of play, Danny Kedwell was fouled by Nathan Smith and up steps Joe Martin to curl the ball into the top left corner of the net from twenty five yards out, This is very similar to the free kick Joe Martin scored against Peterborough United last season, somehow Gillingham are 1 - 0 up in a game that Yeovil Town have been dominating and that penalty miss is so costly now, rather then Yeovil Town being 1 - 0 up it is Gillingham who have taken the lead.

Fort Three Minutes into the match and Stephen Bywater completely mis-judges the flight of Simon Gillett's free kick and thankfully for us the header hits the side netting, but Gillingham ended the first half strongly and could of added a second goal before the break, Antonio German intercepts Kieffer Moore's poor backpass and goes on a run down the right flank, checks back and plays a cross-field pass to Joe Martin, Joe Martin's first choice is brilliant and Joe Martin beats Kevin Dawson to the byline and Joe Martin's cross is headered out for a corner kick.

The resulting corner kick was swing in by Jake Hessenthaler and Yeovil header the ball clear but only as far as the edge of there penalty area and Joe Martin plays the ball out-wide to Jake Hessenthaler who see's his cross charged down by Kevin Dawson and Joe Martin's first time cross to the far post is only half cleared to Danny Kedwell who was urged to shoot from the home crowd, but Danny Kedwell threads the ball out-wide to Antonio German who pulls the ball back past the advancing Chris Weale and Aaron Martin makes a crucial block, Danny Kedwell volleys the ball across the face of Yeovil Town's penalty area, the ball is sliced up into the air, then headered up and under, before Chris Weale has to tip Leon Legge's header over the crossbar, Gillingham end the half strongly after a terrible start.

HALF TIME: GILLINGHAM 1 - 0 YEOVIL TOWN

Somehow Gillingham are in-front after conceding a penalty and shocking start to the first half but the one thing that goal-mouth scramble showed us at the end of the first half is that Yeovil look just as poor defensively as we do because I have not been impressed with the way Gillingham have defended corners or free kicks throughout the first three matches of the season, great strike from Joe Martin for the free kick to give Gillingham the lead, but I don't think Joe Martin has the pace to play as a attacking wing back.

Dickenson and McGlashan not starting means that we got to play 3.5.2 and Loft, Hessenthaler and Morris are all trying to protect Legge, Egan and Hause, Kedwell and German cannot provide us with the outlet we need and Yeovil Town have constantly found Kieffar Moore with long balls and going direct, thankfully no-one is anticipating the knock downs or Gillingham would be in deep trouble by now.

Had we not taken off Josh Hare for Matt Fish I would of said that Brennan Dickenson needs to come on for Antonio German, but I doubt we will risk using a second sub and we will probably wait until the players start to tire around the hour mark before we start making any substitutions.

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 ???

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?

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.

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.

Garawa wrote: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 .