[ 11 Feb 17 ] GILLS v Port Vale Match Thread

[Garawa]

- Port Vale edge the wins 18 to 15 (17 draws) and have won 3 of the last 5 meetings. The Gills are win-less in 5 against them and have won 1 of the last 8.
- Port Vale have won only once in their last 11 league games and also only once in their last 17 away trips in the league and cup.
- Port Vale have lost 8 of their last 12 away league games and failed to score in 5 of the last 7.
- Port Vale have failed to score in 7 of their 13 away games this season and their 8 goals scored on the road is the lowest in League 1.
- Port Vale have only won 7 points on their travels. Only Coventry (6) and Chesterfield (5) have won fewer away points.
- Port Vale won 5 of their opening 10 league games but have won 3 out of 18 since. The Gills won 4 out of 10 but have won 4 out of 19 since.
- Port Vale have the fewest shots on and off target of any side in League 1 (89 fewer than the Gills) but converted 4% more into goals.

3.01 Kick-Off [ 4 - 4 - 1 - 1 ]

3.12
Port Vale miss a clear open goal from 10 yards after Nelson spills ball after catching and landing.

3.47 Half-time 0-0 (46:19)

4.02
The second half kicks off.

4.06
GOAL! Gillingham 0-1 Port Vale: Streete

4.15
Joe Martin finally makes his debut after recovering from injury.

4.17
Josh Parker makes his debut after leaving Red Star Belgrade.

4.47
The referee indicates 5 additional minutes at the end of the game.

4:52
GOAL! Gillingham 1-1 Port Vale: Parker

4.53 FULL-TIME: 1-1 (97:21)

Position: 18th
Attendance: 4,942 (129)
Referee: Nicholas Kinseley
Goal Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJopLm8 ... ploademail
BBC Sport link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38864390

[lidbid46]

Having read that, its obvious that the mighty Blue Boys are going to win at least four nil. Therefore, there is no point in PV travelling all this way so they may as well just save themselves the bother and award us the three points. Then I can stay home in the warm and watch the rugby! OK with everyone else?!

[gillsfan1066]

Sir just so long as you send Mrs.L to see me this weekend you can burn the bloody stadium down for all I care..

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

The first of two important home games,providing we beat the weather! Hopefully we will build on that great point at Bradford,and get three important points against a side that are really poor away.I would be disappointed with anything less really.

[baronnight]

This is the type of game that always worries me, everyone is expecting us to win. there looks to be very little between us, though PV have signed new players in January that could skew the form book.
Looking at the Vale forum, their fans consider this the most winnable game for them this month, hopefully the lads will give a decent performance and not get sucked into a relegation dog fight.

[fan_of_mulligan]

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

------------------------------------Nelson-------------------------------------------
Jackson------------Ehmer------------------------Herd-----------------------Oshilaja
Wagstaff-----------Wright--------------------Hessenthaler-----------------Donnelly
------------------------------------Dack-----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------McDonald-------------------------------------------

Subs: Holy (GK), M.Dickenson, Garmston, Byrne, Parker, Emmanuel-Thomas, List

I have gone with The Same Starting Line Up that played against Bradford City Last Week, but Josh Parker's International Clearance should have come through by now to be named among the substitutes bench, Hopefully, Gillingham get the win first, even if it means putting the performance second, and pick up three valuable points to pull clear of The League One Relegation Zone - COME ON THE GILLS!!!!!!!!!!

[gillsfan1066]

Left that one late, a point for both, but I think this is one of those games we should look at as two points lost, dam we need to win these games playing the bottom feeders around us.

[lidbid46]

That was appalling! Don't let the last second goal fool anyone; that was relegation form. No one seemed to know what they were supposed to be doing and apart from Deje and maybe Wright no one looked particularly interested. Unless all the new guys come good I think we are in trouble. The two that came on today did alright so maybe there is some hope there.

[Garawa]

Failure to beat Shrewsbury has now meant they have leap-frogged us after an unlikely away win at Scunthorpe. Either Utd are having the normal top of the table wobble or Shrewsbury are suddenly much better than before. If that is so then that's one side that will get away from us and had we won we would have kept them behind. Failure to beat Port Vale could see them leap-frog us too if we don't win on Tuesday. If we are going to win a few games in the next 2 months, IT HAS TO BE AGAINST THESE SIDES AROUND US. We cannot afford Chesterfield to close the gap on us too.

Port Vale were quoted as being unfit and struggling after a bad pre-season. They looked it. However they did their work on us and even though we looked sharper and more dangerous (albeit not to the degree we were in the previous games), not taking our chances when we are vulnerable at the back will ultimately cost us dear especially at this time of the season.

[lidbid46]

Did you think we looked sharp and dangerous?! I thought we looked as dangerous as a 14 year old toothless cat.

[Garawa]

In comparison to Port Vale we did but nowhere near as much as against Shrewbsury. Donnelly had a great chance to tuck it in the bottom left corner but got excited and sent it back to the right where Cody almost inadvertently deflected it in. A square ball across the 6 yard box should have been tapped in in the second half and I think Parker was 3 seconds away from scoring the winner when the ref blew for offside (and then full time straight after) when I don't think he was at all. Had he not done so he would have had the shot. There were a couple of attacks also that were thwarted after the ref blew for some very minor fouls.....although they can't really be called that at all.

We were poor but compared to Vale, looked the more threatening side in my opinion.

[gillsfan1066]

They didn't have a good pre -season, hahahahahahahahaha, when was that July of last year, hahahaha????? What the hell are you talking about , these teams have played 30 games since then , plus a couple of cup games and that rubbish competition that included some reserve teams , come on be serious there a crap side like were proving to be.

[Garawa]

Personally I think it was brinkmanship and one of two alternatives. Their captain was either saying that a poor pre-season now means they were quote "not conditioned at all" and that the games played so far means that the players are paying the price for it now with no ability to bring in new faces (something he blames squarely on former manager Ribero who was sacked at the end of December). Or this was a way of putting the players performances totally down to a manager no longer at the club and excusing their lack of recent ability.

Either way it appeared to show in their play and if they continue that way, would surely be one (along with Coventry) to go down this season.

[Garawa]

Link to the goal highlights can be accessed at the bottom of the match info post at the very top of each match thread. I have edited the post to include the Vale highlights that have just been published.

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

That was the worst performance I have seen for a long while.I wasn't at the Oxford game.I'm disappointed as we have no win since December,and these games against Teams around us are the games you need to be winning if you want to stay up.Port Vale were poor,but we made them the better side.Their goal was poor to give away,and we just could not keep the ball.They were stronger and first to the ball most of the game as well.We robbed Port Vale of a win when Parker headed in to equalise in the 95th minute.Most around me had left,and not many celebrated the goal.It was a strange game as the atmosphere was flat,as was the performance.The crowd was under 5,000 as well which is a concern.If we can beat Chesterfield and get a result at Coventry you can say it is a good point.Yesterday is a game most will forget quickly.