[ 14 Mar 17 ] GILLS v Bolton Match Thread

[Garawa]

- Although Bolton have 8 wins to the Gills 6 (2 draws) they have won 6 and lost 0 of the last 8 meetings scoring 20 goals and conceding 7.
- Bolton could go second with a win and overtake Fleetwood whom they beat 4-2 away on Saturday. It was their first league win in 5 and their third in 11.
- The Gills have won 3 out of 4 in the league and are unbeaten at home in 6 games. They have lost 1 out of 12 at home in the league (5 wins).
- Bolton have only conceded 16 away goals and 31 goals in total. Both figures are the leanest totals in League 1.
- Bolton have scored the joint highest number of first half goals (28) in League 1 and conceded the fewest second half goals in the league (16).
- Each time Bolton fail to score in away games this season, they lose. Away in the league they have 5 blank sheets and 5 defeats.
- Bolton have led for longer than any other League 1 side this season, a total of 1,262 minutes (534 more than the Gills).
- The Gills last beat Bolton in May 1987 (9 meetings ago). It was also the last time a clean sheet was kept against them.

7.47 Kick-Off [ 3 - 4 - 1 - 2 ]

7.50
GOAL! Gillingham 0-1 Bolton: Wheater
The Gills have only lost once at home in the league this season when conceding the first goal (3 wins and 3 draws)

8.02
GOAL! Gillingham 0-2 Bolton: Le Fondre

8.34
GOAL! Gillingham 0-3 Bolton: Beavers

8.35 Half-time 0-3 (47.19)
Bolton have won 14 and drawn 3 of the 17 league games they led at half time but the Gills had won both the games they were losing at home.

8.51
The second half kicks off.

8.54
GOAL! Gillingham 0-4 Bolton: Vela
Filipe Morais provides all 4 assists, his 9th in 4 games.

9.40 FULL-TIME 0-4 (96:08)
The Gills lose 4-0 at home for the first time since September 2004.

Position: 16th
Attendance: 5,199 (517)
Referee: Tim Robinson
Goal Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0neGmwU ... freload=10
BBC Sport Match Report: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39188583

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

Another very tough game at home tonight.Bolton are a very good side,and have given themselves a good chance of the top 2 again now.They thumped us at their place back in December,and come into this game after a very good win at Fleetwood.From our point of view confidence and moral has to be high after the great come back against Scunthorpe on Saturday.I would take a draw tonight.

[Garawa]

3rd placed Scunthorpe came to town on Saturday and lost having won 5-0 earlier in the season.
3rd placed Bolton come to town tonight. Will they lose after winning 4-0 earlier in the season?!

In their website's match preview they stated about coming down to London and then talked about their London results this season. How can anyone (apart from American's that haven't visited the UK) believe that we are in London?!?!?!

[gillsfan1066]

When they call to ask the way the calls are put through to Scallys office and he tells them were in South East London really close to his beloved Millwall,just a few miles down the road, or perhaps they watch the Kent Cup and asume that if Charlton London is in Kent,then Gillingham Kent must be in London.?

[gillsfan1066]

Well that bought us back to reality with a bang.

[lidbid46]

I waited until this morning to comment because I really had no enthusiasm left after the game. I think the injuries and suspensions obviously had an effect on our performance, but even if we had had the rest of the squad available I don't see how we could have competed against Bolton. If we think about our midfield alone, it would have been comical for anyone who was not a Gills fan to watch. Dack , Byrne and Hesse looked like primary school kids had been thrown into a secondary school football match. When the ball was on the floor, they all had good moments, but Bolton made sure the ball didn't spend much time on the ground. They, and Cody, Martin and Muldoon, were actually bullied, sometimes right on the edge of legality, but forced off the ball or to give the ball away by the sheer physicality of the Bolton players. We never seemed in control of the ball, but I don't necessarily blame the players for hurriedly getting rid of the ball before they got steamrolled by some giant for the umpteenth time. What did disappoint me was that we seemed to have accepted the fact that we couldn't compete from the first whistle. Two nil down after ten minutes leaves you with little chance of recovery, especially when conceding two such soft goals. Then, switch off in injury time at the end of 45 mins and let the fourth in three minutes into the second half to make it as easy as you like for the opposition. I normally look for positives even in defeat, but last night, there were none. We need to look at the squad, which seems completely unbalanced at the moment, and come up with a different approach for next season. I've always thought we will survive in league one, although hopefully we won't come up against teams like Bolton again, but we must stop just signing individuals who may be decent players, and think about the whole group. We haven't had any tall, strong players for a while now, and I think opposition managers know that and know we can be bullied.

[Garawa]

It certainly did Gillsfan. Apart from the last 13 minutes against Scunthorpe you can say we have been quite poor in the last two and a half games.

Byrne was man of the match and I agree. He was average but showed desire and effort, Hessy to a degree as well, but the rest were poor. The moment they scored after 3 minutes from already their second corner of the game we lost our shape and looked ragged. We fought back well in the second half and looked like we were capable of getting a goal or two to get the deficit down but withing 4 minutes that was put to bed when they scored their fourth.

We missed Wright a lot but in truth the goals have masked the performances. With 3 youth players on the bench the scope for change was minimal. Apart from Fleetwood (who may already be promoted when we play) the remaining games pretty much are against sides around us. If they don't need the points desperately we should get the 6 points we need to secure League 1 next season but quite an overhaul will be needed in the summer.

[Garawa]

I agree Lidbid. I thought Quigley was our "big and tall" player but compared to Wheater, Beavers, Pratley etc he was out-jumped and out-muscled. Muldoon looked well out of his depth and I struggle to see what he will offer the side. List has been here for too long being the "one for the future" and now finds plenty of "ones for the future" taking his place. We brought in too much expensive experience (ie too old) last season after having no experience. We need to address that as a matter of urgency the moment the season ends.

[gillsfan1066]

This is becoming a never ending roundabout, we hire a new manager, in comes HIS players, out goes that manager, out goes some of his players, who are not on 3 year contracts, in comes the new manager, then in comes his new players, then out goes that manager, then ........
Time to hire a new manager,a manager with EXPERIENCE of Championship and First Division football , it might cost us more than we have paid to bringing in the crap managers we have done over the few years. These guys must talk a good fight at the interview stage then can't knock their way out of a paper bag when the bell goes and the players are on the pitch.
OK it is going to cost but WHO CARES, we need a STRONG EXPERIENCED MANAGER, and we need to hire a GENERAL MANAGER who is going to be the buffer between the owner and the board and the Manager and the Team, and the Manager and the team and the Fans, but more importantly someone who can work with the manager and the board in choosing players to bring in or let go, who can sit with the manager and watch film, explain what and where everything went wrong, or right .
Maybe an ex manager that does not want to manage anymore, or an ex player that has a brain, but we need someone. Who ever hires the Managers at GFC is getting real bad advice ,or is just too PIG HEADED to listen to anyone elses opinions when it comes to picking GFC managers,and I assume I am talking about P.S.
I don't know who's fault it is that were sitting with only 11 wins on the season, is it the players that don't give two ****'s, is it the manager that cannot get them fired up to play, is it the owner that just sits back and watches us go from disaster to disaster without saying anything to him, like WHAT THE **** is going on, all I do know is that this has been going on for far, far to long at Gillingham Football Club,TIME FOR A CHANGE, the fans of GFC don't deserve this mediocrity year in year out, they have taken it for far to long.

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

Luckily I wasn`t at this game,but I feel for the fans that went.It sounded awful,and looking at the highlights all four goals were from awful defending.Bolton in both games have been a class above us,but we definitely made it easy for them last night.Our goal difference has taken a big hit,and we have to hope we don`t go on a losing run now due to confidence hit.