30Jan

Not again!

by Gary W

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Unbelievable. Unimaginable. Unacceptable. Possibly the only words that are capable of summing up what happened at the weekend – there were positives to come out of the 4-3 defeat to Accrington but few will remember those.

I know I have a tendency to talk about matches in the whole but it is primarily the action on the pitch that catches all of the headlines than anything off of it and this weekend was certainly no exception.  Last time out at Priestfield, a 3-1 lead was squandered to end with defeat in a manner that could not have been worse had the side told the opposition to go back to the dressing room whilst the Gills set about scoring own goals.

A little harsh maybe but Hessy’s comments of schoolboys being able to do better suggested the gaffer felt no differently to the fans. It was embarrassing and must not happen again so with a trip to snowy Accrington looming, thoughts of last season’s debacle there were at the fore-front of many people’s minds. No-one would predict another crazy 7-4 defeat but a 0-0 would be most welcome.

Any thoughts that the defence had worked on improving their performance during the week were quickly dispelled within forty-five seconds (the time it took ‘Stanley to score) Flitney throwing the ball to the opposition with no-one seemingly capable of tracking back to challenge. Maybe the nightmare of last week was weighing heavily on the minds of the defence, Frampton being the only new face in the line-up in place of Lawrence despite all the threats of major changes.

An individual piece of skill from Jackman curling a free kick from outside of the area into the top corner got the game level and with only six minutes gone, the 7-4 score-line (that was goal-less at this point last time) seemed likely. Rather than inspire the side, the early goal conceded appeared to have instilled enough doubt in the defence’s mind to concede another three in a suicidal manner. This left the Gills with yet another four goals against them, the first time it had happened in the first half of a game since the 7-0 Shrewsbury loss back in September 2008 a hundred and eighty three games ago. What was worse was that the side had now shipped four goals in consecutive games, in fact halves, making eight goals against in only a shocking seventy-five minutes!

With the host’s inspirational manager departing this week, I felt Accrington were vulnerable as John Coleman appeared to consistently get the very best out of a tiny and very average squad with virtually no money and did this season after season with a new batch of players each time.  Sides often raise their game to impress a new man at the helm but whilst the search for a permanent replacement continued, I felt his departure would be detrimental.  How wrong could I be?  The crazy game last year was 3-2 at half time and so 4-1 must now surely be well out of reach.

Whatever was said (or thrown) at the break did the trick.  The first positive was that the Gills were more unified than before and kept a clean sheet, though how much of that was due to the Lancashire side sitting back and protecting their lead we will never know.  But the main positive for me was Gavin Tomlin once again.  For the second game in a row he scored a brace to help his side score three – he must be wondering how on Earth he ended up on the losing side each time!  Written off before kicking a ball for the club, he has proved we are more than capable of scoring goals and will win comfortably should the defence fulfil their duties proficiently enough.

I don’t believe Hessy is personally at risk but with four successive defeats this is not the time to have a blip and has to be corrected this week to protect the investment into getting the side out of League 2.  At this stage last season we were into an unbeaten run of eighteen matches and now have just one solitary point more but with eleven draws during it, turning a few of those into wins will help cancel out these defeats.  With the game on Saturday being the Gills’ 5000^th match in senior league and cup competitions, the celebratory nature needs to be fully utilised against Hereford and beaten them 6-1 away earlier in the season should be all the motivation anyone would need.

Posted by Gillingham fan Gary Wade

Follow Gary on Twitter at @Gills_Stats