[ 19 Mar 16 ] Southend v GILLS Match Thread

[Garawa]

Gillingham are unbeaten in 3 against Southend and have beaten them 42 times in all. The hosts have won 36 of the 106 meetings whilst 28 ended level.

The Gills are looking for their first win on the road since beating Millwall and Swindon back in December. The 6 games since have seen 2 draws and 4 defeats.

Adedeji Oshilaja is available for the Gills again after arriving for his second spell at the club. His away record of 4 wins, 3 draws and 2 defeats is the 2nd best in the squad (behind Harry Lennon who only played 3 games).

All of Southend's 6 home defeats came with a blank sheet. Southend have lost 12 games in the league and 10 of their 13 blank sheets came during them.

Southend have recently beat Barnsley away (who had 11 wins in 13 when they met) and Burton at home (10 wins in 13). They are their only wins in 7 matches.

Both sides have scored just 6 goals each in the last 8 ties between the sides.

After conceding 7 goals in 2 home games, Southend have since conceded just 3 in the subsequent 5.

Southend have lost 4 of their last 7 games and 7 of their last 14 after previously only losing 5 of the 22 games before.

3:00 Kick Off

3:21
GOAL! Southend 1-0 Gillingham.
Southend have only lost once in 17 games this season after scoring the first goal and not at all at home, winning 7 and drawing 1.

3:48
Deji Oshilaja puts the ball in the net but it's ruled out for offside.

3:48 Half time: 1-0
Southend are unbeaten in the league when leading at half time, winning 9 and drawing 3 (5 wins and a draw in home games).

4:03
The second half kicks off.

4:09
GOAL! Southend 1-1 Gillingham: Norris
Luke Norris scores his 2nd Gills goal in 3 games, his 6th of the season. 4 of those 6 saw have seen him equalise for the club.

4:51 FULL-TIME: 1-1

Position: 4th
Attendance: 9,135 (1,921)
Referee: Dean Whitestone

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

A nice local away trip to look forward to on Saturday.1,600 Tickets sold with just 400 remaining,so a big Gills following.This will be my first time there.Southend lost their last home game 0-1,and drew 1-1 before that against Crewe.I`m hoping we will get a Millwall away type of performance,rather than a Fleetwood one on Saturday!

Gills Team? Loft is out for some time with his Achilles injury,El Abd may miss out after his strain in the first half on Saturday so Oshilaja may go straight into the side.Jackson may be ok to play according to Edinburgh.Dickenson was outstanding on Saturday so will surely keep his place in the side.

-----------------------------------------Nelson-----------------------------------------
-------Jackson--------------------------------------------------------------Dickenson
------------------------------Ehmer--------------Oshilaja-------------------
---------------------------------------Wright---------------------------------------
-----------------------------Hessenthaler----------A Morris--------------------
------------------------------------------Williams------------------------------
-----------------------------Samuel-----------------Norris-------------------------

Subs: G.Morris,Garmston,Oldaker,McGlashan,Osadebe,Donnelly

We may go attacking like on Saturday with McGlashan starting,so you never know!

[gillsfan1066]

Put a big fat X on my pools coupon for this one at the seaside, can see a draw all the way, just don't feel confident going away with so many injured players sitting at home listening to the game on the radio. Come on you Gills lets pull one out and come home with THREE POINTS.

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

Chicksen has gone back to Brighton,and List is injured with a hamstring injury.

[fan_of_mulligan]

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

------------------------------------Nelson---------------------------------------
--------------A.Morris-------------Ehmer----------------Oshilaja----------------
McGlashan----------Hessenthaler------------Wright-----------------B.Dickenson
-----------------------------------Williams-------------------------------------------
----------------------Samuel------------------Norris--------------------------------

Subs: G.Morris (GK), Jackson, Garmston, Osadebe, Oldaker, Donnelly, Mbo

Adedeji Oshilaja should take Adam El-Abd's spot in the starting eleven and Jake Hessenthaler should come in for Doug Loft, other then that I think Justin Edinburgh will stick with the same starting eleven that won 3-0 against Crewe Alexandra Last Saturday, this means preserving with the wing back system which saw Jermaine McGlashan and Brennan Dickenson provide a lot of pace and width for Gillingham in wide area's.

With Adam El-Abd, John Egan, Doug Loft, Bradley Dack, Cody McDonald, Elliott List and Adam Chicksen going back to Brighton & Hove Albion, all unavailable, it means that Justin Edinburgh is limited in his selection options, I think Ryan Jackson is only fit enough for a place among the substitutes bench and will only come on if absolutely necessary, and Noel Mbo may well be promoted from the youth team into the first team, as the young striker is scoring goals for fun in The Youth Team and he has been named among the substitutes bench before this season.

This game is probably the closest to what we have in-terms of experiencing a derby and 2,000 Gillingham Supporters traveling to Roots Hall means that the atmosphere is going to be amazing and it will be great to see Adam Barrett and Myles Weston again, who were both pivotal in Gillingham's Championship Winning Season back in 2012 / 2013 - I am sure that both players will get a great reception tomorrow - I wouldn't be disappointed with a draw, but a win against Southend United would be brilliant, COME ON THE GILLS!!!!!!!!!!

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

1,903 Tickets have been sold,but no Tickets are available on the day.

[baronnight]

A tough game against a team looking for the play offs, Phil Brown is a experienced manager and will give Jed plenty to think about. We must avoid the silly early goal and look to be patient, Southend are unlikely to give us the room that Crewe did last week or waste as many good chances.
A 2 - 1 victory would be good, but any points away from home are gratefully received.

[gillsfan1066]

The more I read the worse I feel about this game, could't we call in sick ??

[Garawa]

Gills give a second debut to Andrew Crofts on loan from Brighton! That's a heck of a gap between spells!

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

I thought we played really well,and deserved to get more than a point.We started really brightly and we had four shots in succession,but all were well blocked.We were on top,but a mistake from McGlashan meant Wordsworth was set up by McGlashan's pass to put them 1-0 up.That was basically their first chance.Southend looked better after that until half-time.In the second half we took the game to them,and equalised through Norris.His goal sent our end mental,and the excitement got to a few as they got chucked out.We looked to get the winner and Samuel had a couple of efforts well saved,and Oshilaja was denied by a block.We finished strongly,but a point is good after being a goal behind at half-time.We did deserve to win,but good defending and keeping denied us.

It was great to see Crofts back,we saw him get off the coach and thought we were seeing things.His performance was really good,and he was my MOTM.He added quality in the midfield and experience that we needed.