[ 3 May 15 ] Gillingham v Notts County - Match Thread

[fan_of_mulligan]

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/medway/sport/gills-give-notts-more-tickets-35944/

Notts County have sold there initial allocation of 1400 tickets and another 654 tickets available for away supporters.

[Garawa]

The Gills have won 3 and drawn 1 of the last 4 times we have concluded the season at home. We have won 32 of the 55 matches.

The Gills edge the wins over Notts County by 14 to 10 (there have been 6 draws). 7 of those wins have come in the last 9 home ties.

Notts County have only won 4 of their last 29 league games and 1 of their last 12 (a 2-1 win at home to Doncaster on Saturday).

Notts County have only scored 5 goals in their last 12 away matches and conceded 20.

Notts County sit 1 place above the drop zone but have let in 60 goals compared to the Gills' 65. They also let in 1 fewer away from home then we have at home.

Notts County have the joint fewest home wins of 5 in League 1. They have taken just 21 points from home games but have 29 so far away.

The Gills have a negative goal difference (14-15) up to the 50th minute at home in the league but it's 20-13 from the 51st minute onwards

The Gills have managed 9 clean sheets in the league but Notts County have 9 in their away games alone. They also have however 8 blank sheets as well.

The Gills have won 69.7% of their home games played in May and June and have won 27 of the 36 ties played over those months when in the the 3rd tier.

The last time the away side brought 2,000+ to a Gills home league match was Southampton in the 2009/10 season.

12:15
Kick-Off

12:47
Bradley Dack has a shot cleared off the line.

12:56
Glenn Morris makes a double save blocking 2 shots on the line.

13:01
Half time: 0-0

13:33
GOAL! Gillingham 0-1 Notts County.
Notts County had previously scored first in 11 of their 22 away league games (winning 6). Only 4 sides had led more times.

14:00
GOAL! Gillingham 1-1 Notts County: Egan

14:04
GOAL! Gillingham 2-1 Notts County: Dickenson
The Gills have scored 64 goals in the league this season, the most of any of the last 8 seasons played outside of the 4th tier.

14:06
GOAL! Gillingham 3-1 Notts County: Norris

14:07
Full-time: 3-1 - Notts County are relegated!
The Gills finish in their highest league position (12th) since the 2005/6 season when they ended their 3rd tier campaign in 14th place.

Attendance: 8,443 (2,058)
Referee: Stuart Attwell

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

I`m pleased that Notts County have something to play for,as dead rubber games are quite boring on the last day.There will be a great atmosphere,and we should see an open game.County will be going for it,and that should leave space for us to hit them on the counter.The KO time is a bit of a pain especially for County,but hopefully we can finish on a high and in the top half.

[gillsfan1066]

Why a 12.15 KO ??

[sotongill]

Why a 12.15 KO ??

Believed to be because SKY want to show a game live , and don't want it to clash with the later two Premiership games - as that's been scheduled for a 12.15 kick off , so must all the other games as it's the final day of the season

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

There is a bus service between Meopham and Gillingham,and also Strood and Gillingham this Sunday.

[Garawa]

If they bring nearly 3,000 how the heck are they all going to get on the rail replacement buses???? And they can't delay kick off either otherwise they would have an unfair advantage over their fellow relegation threatened rivals. This could be very awkward!!

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

If they bring nearly 3,000 how the heck are they all going to get on the rail replacement buses???? And they can't delay kick off either otherwise they would have an unfair advantage over their fellow relegation threatened rivals. This could be very awkward!!

They have a few coaches coming as well.

[gillsfan1066]

Could be a fun game , guess we really need to win this, after all Colchester, Crawley and Orient are a lot closer to go than Notts County.
If there bringing 3,000 fans and we have nothing to play for this could almost end up being a " home game " for them with regards to crowd noise. Glasgow came from Newport Cty not Notts Cty right ??
Hopefully it will be a good game and a Gills win, then I guess roll on next season, although at my age slow down the arrival of next season, times travelling much to fast now days, lol.

[fan_of_mulligan]

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

---------------------------------G.Morris--------------------------------------
--------------Egan---------------Legge-----------------Ehmer----------------
McGlashan---------Muldoon------------------Loft---------------B.Dickenson
-----------------------------------Dack----------------------------------------
--------------------McDonald---------------Marquis--------------------------

Subs: Nelson (GK), Hoyte, Bell, A.Morris, Hessenthaler, Pritchard, Norris

I think John Marquis and Bradley Dack will take Jake Hessenthaler and Luke Norris's spots in the starting eleven, but other then that it will be the same team that played against Scunthorpe United Last Saturday meaning that Oliver Muldoon will start against Notts County tomorrow, I don't think Justin Edinburgh will experiment with the line up or look to give a young player there competitive debut for Gillingham's First Team, I think Justin Edinburgh will name a match day squad with the full intention of winning the match and hoping that Gillingham will end this season on a high and win in-front of our own supporters, and maybe secure a top ten position in League One.

Fair play to Notts County for bringing over 2,200 supporters to Priestfield Stadium tomorrow, the atmosphere will be much better inside the stadium and at least we know that Notts County will be playing for the win, they won't try and defend and hold out for a draw, which hopefully means that we see a more entertaining game of football and that we see chances at both ends of the pitch.

The 12.15PM Mid-Day Kick Off is going to throw me out a bit as I am used to 3PM or 7.45PM Kick Off Time's, and I do feel for Notts County Supporters who will have to leave at 7AM to get to Gillingham tomorrow and I don't think away supporters have been taken into consideration when kick off time's are being move around, left, right and centre.

Touch Wood, that Gillingham end this season on a high, put in our best home performance of the season so that we go into the summer feeling more confidant about the 2015 / 2016 season - COME ON THE GILLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Garawa]

Felt really odd leaving on a Sunday at 10am to get to a home game! First half there was loads of chances with many clumped into clumps! The Gills had 4 good chances to score in the space of 15 seconds or so and Morris twice made double saves to deny County. The second half was much poorer and when County scored you felt it was going to be one of those days. To their credit they didn't come to stifle they cam eto win and could have gone 2 up but they then seemed to switch off. They made the wrong tactical switch, Roy Carroll lost his head and when the Gills got level it was all us! 3 goals in the 7 minute spell before the final whistle.

Aaron Morris had a good game, Legge won everything in the air and Marquis was woeful. A great end to the season and a top half finish, not bad at all!

[gillsfan1066]

I wonder how many fans "HEARD" the goals and didn't actually SEE them as they wondered away from the stadium to beat the crowd. Almost feel bad for Notts County putting them down with two minutes of the game remaining.
Oh well another mediocre season comes to an end, the fans like gwaradabumseeade look upon it as a victory any time we don't go down, he and a few other Scally apologists look upon staying up as a victory, ( I love you really old darling), he will learn by the time he gets to Mr. Lidbits age that 12th in the table is not really very good.
Personally I think the whole season was a pretty drab affair, a few good wins when I thought we were going to be blown out of the water in early 2015 made it fun for a while, but to many reports by the fans who were there saying things like " The first half was awful without Gillingham doing much, only late in the second half did they start to play . "
I hope Scally gets Glasgow the players he wants over the summer, and we get a couple of tough preseason games under out belt ,not the tomato can events we had this year to start the 2015/16 campaign, then a run of five or six wins to get the season underway and get everyone excited again, talk of promotion in the air.
Have a great summer everyone, GO BLACKHAWKS, GO CUBS, GO FIRE, and see you in the fall.

[baronnight]

Looking at attendances/budgets mid-table is exactly where we should finish and you can't get more mid-table than 12th, however, looking at the 2nd half of the season (37 points from 23 games) is actually playoff form. For a team that was widely tipped for relegation back in August I see this as positive progress.
Whilst I believe strengthening in the summer would be good, let's remember that our second half performance would have seen us in 5th place so be mindful of not throwing out the baby with the bath water. With such a young squad this year, natural development should see an improved performance without radical changes.

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

I enjoyed the game yesterday,it was great that it was not a drab affair between two sides that were on their holiday`s.County needed a win to stay up,and Edinburgh wanted us to be on it like it was August.I thought we put a lot of effort in,and could have scored a couple of goals in the first half.We had one off the line,and Dack had a long range shot go just wide with Carroll out of his goal.County looked right up for the fight,they could have had 3-4 goals in the first half,but Glenn Morris pulled off some great saves.The second half to start with was a bit gritty,but a long ball over the top from one of their players found Burke who finished well past Morris.The goal sent their 2,058 fans mental,and I haven`t heard noise like that in the away end for a few years.It did look like they would see out the win as they were defending deep and had about 9 players around their area at times.I think the subs from County was their own down fall,plus their players starting to time waste and feign injury.It got the ground irritated,and the players responded to it.Egan equalised in the 88th minute with a good header,and County just collapsed.In the 93rd minute sub Dickenson hit a nice finish in the corner to relegate them.Noris also come on as a sub hit them on the counter with a third goal as they threw men forward.

It was a mad 7 minutes,but a great way to end the season.I feel for the County fans as relegation always hurts and they supported their Team for the 90 minutes,their players antics cost them safety I felt.MOTM? I thought Loft,and Dack had good games,but the defence is where the MOTM comes from.Egan,Legge,and Ehmer were outstanding heading every ball away,and dominating their 6ft 4 Hungarian striker.Morris also was right up there for a string of brilliant saves in the first half.I`m going to give it to Egan who also scored a decent header at the Rainham end.

The season is over,and i`m pleased with our top half finish,and reaching 62 minutes.At Christmas we looked likely to go down,but fair play to Scally for making a tough decision to get rid of Taylor.The gang of four took the reigns and changed our style and gave our players a chance to express themselves,which was always missing under Taylor.We were always conservative with Taylor,and played the same cautious way whether it was Bristol City or Brackley.Also credit to Edinburgh who has continued where the gang of 4 left off and put us in a healthy position,and giving us a positive outlook for next season.

[Garawa]

You have to build, it takes time. Each time you try to better the last performance but try to run before you walk and you fall.....back into League 2! Yes I am happy with 12th as we were 23rd at Christmas as it is a big improvement on last year. Fans need a massive dose of realism. I have heard that Fleetwood aim to continue their rise, Newport want to do a Bournemouth, Maidstone want to take the league by storm with a plastic pitch and Ebbsfleet are going to be the next Crawley who themselves had massive plans and now find themselves falling back to where they came from. There are more where they came from not to mention the likes of Sheffield Utd, Swindon, Portsmouth and Bradford who all aspire to get back into the Prem. Most of the Championship is proliferated by sides who have recently been Premier League sides and are desperate to get back there.

Its great to have ambition and we should have the same but our fans EXPECT success when in truth more often than not we were the side battling on the final day like Notts County (it was a rare treat)! About 75% of the league below the top flight all have grand plans to be a big successful club and so do we it seems with our 5.5k attendances. If anyone things we can rival these teams there is a lot of delusion about! Look how badly Blackpool have fallen and I would take being a Gills fans over them any day!

I am not saying we give up and have no ambition. We cannot out-compete these clubs but some will suffer a fall of grace and with the right approach there is always a chance to over-achieve and who knows where that might lead but that will only happen with a solid side, a slick team which knows each other inside out and an improvement over a a couple of seasons and it all takes time.