Pre-Season Friendlies Thread 2015

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

The season has only just finished,but some of the friendlies have already been announced.Once the list grows I will edit the list in this message,so all the friendlies are at the top.

What Teams would you like to see us play? With Justin Edinburgh`s links to Spurs,it would be great if he could get a Spurs XI to Priestfield.Norwich City at home would be another good test as they have good players which would test us.Also QPR here would be another good test with the players they have.Away games? I expect the usual Kent Teams,and hopefully a strong squad to Faversham mid July .

*Home games are in bold.

Folkestone Invicta (A)- Tuesday 7th July (Fullicks Stadium) 0-3
Tonbridge Angels (A)- Saturday 11th July ( Longmead Stadium) 1-2
Bromley (A)- Tuesday 21st July (Hayes Lane) 1-2
Hastings Utd (A)- Thursday 23rd July (The Pilot Field) XI 2-2
Dover Athletic (A)- Saturday 25th July (The Crabble) 1-1
Chatham Town (A)- Monday 27th July (The Sports Ground) XI 1-1
Brighton & Hove Albion (H) Wednesday 29th July (Priestfield Stadium)
Portsmouth (H) Saturday 1st August (Priestfield Stadium
Faversham Town (A)-Gillingham XI Tuesday 4th August (Shepherd Neame Stadium)

[gillsfan1066]

I don't care about playing the Kent teams, thats good for the minnows and local with no travel for us, we can play a split squads, , I just want to see us play a Charlton, and say Ipswich or what ever in the final two pre- season games, not Ebbsfleet , Welling or Faversham.

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

I expect there will be 2-3 home games against Championship opposition.I don`t mind the Faversham game as it is a short walk for me .

[Garawa]

I enjoyed the last friendly against Spurs when Gus Poyet grabbed both goals in a 2-0 win. Have to laugh at our "fans" on the Facebook pages. It would drive absolutely nuts if that's where we went instead of this forum. Literally one day back and people were moaning that we had announced Tonbridge Angels rather than "a Premier League side for a change". Errm, I guess they had no idea who Palace were last season. And these posts every few seconds about this player (who nobody has ever heard of) has been released by X FC and could be worth a shout. They want the club to get rid of, among others, Hessy which means paying off the 3 years left on his contract and pay out for a player nobody has seen play!!!! If the club did do that there would be uproar about lack of ambition! My God what are these people on, lets have a squad of 2,000 and get them all! It really is a thankless and dammed if you do task the club have!

Anyway, moan done and back to the thread. We always play against local sides. It's a way of helping them financially as we are often their big draw. Sometimes it is better to play games where fringe players can score a goal or two in as it helps confidence. It allowed Dack to break into the first team so I would rather that than play a Chelsea XI that we lose 3-0 and don't glean anything from. You do need a sterner test and we often have at least one so I wish some of our "fans" would just have a break for a bit.

[fan_of_mulligan]

I like going to teams like Folkestone Invicta, Bromley, Dartford, Ebbsfleet United, Tonbridge Angels, Faversham Town and Ramsgate, pre-season is probably the only time Gillingham are going to play against Local Non League Opposition and supporters of these clubs really do appreciate Gillingham sending there first team squad to these pre-season matches and attendances for these matches tend to be 500+ and maybe in one or two cases over 1,000.

When Ashford Town re-formed as Ashford United, Gillingham at home was the first game for the club's existence and just three day's before The Ashford United Game, Gillingham announced all three kits for The 2011 / 2012 Season and Gillingham had signed Ross Flitney, Matt Fish, Andrew Frampton, Lewis Montrose, Danny Kedwell, Charlie Lee, Chris Whelpdale, all seven players played in Gillingham's 3-0 win against Ashford United and there was over 1,100 inside the stadium that evening and Ashford United were confidant going into the new season that they could hold there own in The Kent Invicta League considering that they only lost 3-0 to a very strong Gillingham Side.

Also with so many Northern Games in League One Next Season, making short distances to local Non League Opposition means that we can get to any ground in Kent in a hour, the only pre-season game outside of Kent I would go to would be Gillingham Town Away.

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

I have added Folkestone Invicta to the list,as Gills will be playing them for Frankie Chappell`s Testimonial on Tuesday 7th.

http://www.kentsportsnews.com/folkeston ... 1-05-2015/

Edit* Faversham Town has been added to the list as well,but this looks like being a Gills XI with it being played on Tuesday 4th August.

http://www.favershamtownfc.co.uk/first% ... sults.html

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

I asked the Gills Twitter page what sort of Team will be playing at Faversham as the the game is only a few days before the season starts,and here is their reply....Gillingham FC ‏@TheGillsFC 42s43 seconds ago
@KFG2003 @SaltersLane First team players are likely to be involved, however we won't know more until nearer the time #gills

[gillsfan1066]

I think my dear Ms. Fanny Mulligan you are the exception to the rule, well you and one or two others. You seem to love everything Gillingham from the blue toilet paper in Scally's bathroom to the machine that paints the white lines on the pitch, and thats fine, but like I say, I think your the exception to the rule.
I think the vast majority of people that go to GFC during the season have a life, a job, a wife, kids, girlfriends or what ever, ( and some people like Mr Lidbit have both a wife and a girlfriend,) and they don't give two hoots about The Kent Cup, or pre season friendly's against Ashford, or Tonbridge ,they want to see GFC in the top six or seven fighting for promotion, not going to Faversham in the middle of the summer when their family's are saying Daddy take us to the seaside, Daddy take us to the Strand, not Daddy can we go to Ebbsfleet and see Gillingham struggle against a team they should whip upside the head 15-0, and come away 2-1 winners.
If ANY one who owns a Prem or Championship club actually liked Scally we would have at least three friendly's against sides like Charlton, hell there a mile or two up the road, West Ham, and YEAH CHELSEA, then the kids would be saying Daddy can we go and see Gillingham play Chelsea , get the fans enthused ,go into the season running, but that seems to make to much sense ,insted lets play teams we should beat by a hat full and win 2-1 in front of 500 people, yeah that will make the average fan of GFC who does not give a **** about Dartford FC enthused, and the players excited, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,yeah my ass it will.

[gillsfan1066]

Did we play Palace last season, I thought the only " real" pre- season game we had was against the Ipswich Witches Speedway Club??

[Garawa]

We did play Palace but the season before: viewtopic.php?f=25&t=1676.

The real trouble with you state 1066 is that the big clubs are all away playing in America and China amongst other places. Then they will have a pre-season "tournament" against the biggest clubs around and have to start qualifying in July for the Champions League and then moan about fixture burnout. It leaves a handful of the less fashionable PL sides to play games everyone else. There are just too many teams to share it around that all want to now with less time to do it. The games of Bournemouth v Real Madrid are a big exception to the rule. I think 1 match against any PL side each pre-season is an achievement and will be even harder next season with a month of Euro 2016 to contend with.

[Rimshot]

That doesn't really alter the common sense of 1066's post ... I'm biased, I don't like Scally ( although that hardly puts me in the minority) but this is precisely the sort of challenge a good Chairman rises to when he has overall responsibility for the future of the club.

[Garawa]

But why? You have to pay a LOT of money to host a top side. You then get whipped 8 or 9 nil and everyone wonders what it achieved and then everyone starts attacking the chairman as he spent money just to inflate his ego further!!! This isn't a pro or anti Scally argument, why would a side like Chelsea choose to "test" themselves against us when they can do it against Bayern Munich or Real Madrid? Given that we still wouldn't fill the stadium and probably end up out of pocket I'd rather not bother as a test against lower PL sides might actually produce some workable results for the manager! Alternatively you could get an XI side of the top clubs down and then everyone would moan that they didn't know anyone!

This is a pointless argument as we have no way of knowing if we inquired or not and got told they were too busy.

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

A Spurs XI with say fringe players would be a good test for us.With Edinburgh`s links to Spurs that should be do able.They often play away at Stevenage,so we may be lucky.I would be pleased with Palace again,as they gave us a good test.

[Rimshot]

Why ? For goodness sake it's bilndingly obvious. Because you have some ambition, some influence, some sense of what constitutes an attraction for the fans, because it would test your players against higher opposition, because it might be newsworthy and bring in new supporters, because it's your bleeding job !!!

[fan_of_mulligan]

Our attendance for the First or Second Round in The Football League Trophy is higher then what we would get for a pre-season friendly at home against Charlton Athletic or Millwall for example, at least there was over 3,000 for The Crystal Palace game and the only other friendly I can think of in recent year's where there has been a decent home attendance, was Andy Hessenthaler's testimonial against West Ham United, when West Ham United brought there entire first team squad to Priestfield Stadium.

I am surprised we don't send our first team to Dagenham & Redbridge or AFC Wimbledon for example, you get the competitive matches you need to prepare yourself for the up and coming season, without covering the costs of hosting the match.