Gillingham FC Forum

We Travel to Notts County on Saturday.County have moved up to 10th after a comfortable 0-3 away win at struggler`s Crewe last Night.Last season we lost 3-1 at Notts County,but I look at this game as a place we should be looking at getting something.The first League away win would be nice,but getting something would keep us a bit further away from the bottom four.Hopefully last weeks sucker punch at the end has not affected the players too much,and that we can be a bit more attacking in the game on Saturday.

What Team would you play?

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

------------------------------Bywater-------------------------------------
-------------Egan------------Davies---------------Hause----------------
Hoyte--------------------------------------------------------------Martin
----------Pritchard--------Hessenthaler------------Loft----------------
-----------------McDonald--------------Norris---------------------------

Subs: G.Morris (GK), A.Morris, Linganzi, Dack, McGlashan, Dickenson, German

I have gone with the opinion that Peter Taylor will get Gillingham to line up with a cautious and a defensive minded approach to away games and the goals against column in the last four away games will back up that claim as Gillingham have only conceded three goals in the last four away games in all competitions and I think Peter Taylor will stick with a defensive minded approach and Gillingham will probably line up with the 3.5.2 / 5.3.2 formation that we played against Sheffield United last week.

I know this means playing negative defensive football and it isn't pretty or attractive to watch, but recent away performances suggest that by playing this way we make it difficult for the opposition to break us down and we probably need to be resolute away from home, I would prefer it if we went for it from the off and then close up defensively when we have got a lead to protect or in a unlikely scenario Gillingham have a two goal lead.

Assuming that Gillingham do stick with the 3.5.2 / 5.3.2 formation then I would like to see Luke Norris played alongside Cody McDonald and I hope Peter Taylor gives those two specific instructions to never come back and defend when Gillingham are defending a corner kick / free kick, keep those two on the halfway line to ensure that Notts County have to keep 3 - 4 players back, I think Jake Hessenthaler will come back into the starting eleven with Amine Linganzi likely to be the player to drop to the bench as a midfield trio of Loft, Pritchard and Hessenthaler will give us better passing options in the middle of the park and then Aaron Morris or Amine Linganzi can come on for Josh Pritchard in the latter spell of the second half as Pritchard faded away against Sheffield United last Saturday.

Peter Taylor also has to look ahead to Tuesday Night and he can only make six changes from the team that plays away at Notts County tomorrow for the team that will line up against Colchester United on Tuesday Night so we could see 1 - 2 surprise starters tomorrow - hopefully Gillingham can get that first away win of the season with a win against Notts County tomorrow - COME ON THE GILLS!!!!!!!!!!!

As usual, match info and facts can be found over in the stats section or by clicking here: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1284

Why can he only make six changes for the game at Colchester ??

To ensure sides play a strongish side and not just play 14 kids who had never played all season before.

16 shots at goal; so we didn't sit back today!

Problem was we only had 4 shots on goal and they had 7 and we missed a penalty, Hacker living up to his name hacked it , lol.
No worries I am sure we will survive in the First Division this year , and then you wait till next year, promotion, promotion, promotion, lol.
My bad ESPN had it as Hacker taking the penalty, why doesn't Cody take them ?

You really cannot judge matches on how many shots at goal though! You would expect the away side to have less and although we had 4, it would still be enough to have won the game 5-0 and everyone would be going bonkers! By all accounts, it was a much improved performance however, just like we did under Martin Allen, we have stopped conceding by quite a lot but also stopped scoring as well.

OK now tell me WHY you expect the away team to have less shots on goal then the home team ? Correct me if I am wrong , but I seem to remember our promotion year way way back in 2012/13 we actually got more points from the away games than we did from the home games, which using my logic probably makes me think we kicked the ball in the net more times than the home teams we were playing did ? Of course I am probably wrong and I am sure your going to tell me where I went wrong but I believe good teams promotion winning teams need to get as many points away from home as they do at home to go up as Champions.
Anyway at the end of the day I think we have a lot of young talent at GFC which may or may not be good for the up coming years, problem is in my humble opinion the only trophy worth winning is promotion THIS YEAR, who knows what is going to happen next year, we bring in a new manager and all change , everyone off the bus were going in a different direction.

I was at my Daughters Birthday party,so have only just seen the score.The stats look better than last week and it looks like we should have got at least a draw.A shame Norris missed the penalty,and we came up against a good keeper in Roy Carroll.Scunthorpe at home next week becomes a bit important as we sit only three points above the bottom 4.If you don`t win away,then you have to win your home games.

It does sound logical Chicago but remember, in that season we won a number of away games 1-0 or 2-1 with 4 or 5 shots on target whereas we won a few home games scoring 4 with 7 or 8 on target. Home sides always have the impetus to attack whereas the away sides counter more and therefore create less chances. It's not always the case (and certainly not for the very best sides in each league) but as a general rule of thumb that's how it goes. Don't know why, just is.

FOM was interviewed by the Notts County Fan Site before the game,and here is the video of him answering their questions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D78-Ei2BfLc

Quite an interesting idea from them. Bit of a shame that the gates behind Lee was in full HD focus but he wasn't