Gillingham FC Forum

A well earned point at Bradford puts the Gills on 45 points for the season with a home tie against Crewe next Saturday. 3 points is more than likely and we would then be just 2 points short of the much fabled 50 point "survival" target. The point was helped massively by Akinfenwa who came on at the break and his 2 penalties helped to beat Coventry on Tuesday.

If the Gills were to finish in the top half of the table after such a poor start, it would have to be a great success so the question is which of the out of contract players in the summer should be offered a new contract?

I think out of the list above,Nelson,Akinfenwa,Kedwell,and Gregory deserve new deals.Lee has not been good enough this season,and would need 8-9 strong performances to be considered on a lower contract.Weston is not consistent enough,and I think we could do better.Birchall unfortunately has not worked out,and that injury in the pre season game at Bromley ruined his chances of succeeding here.Nelson for me is right up there as the best keeper in the League,and deserves a 2-3 year deal.Akinfenwa when he first joined did not look up to the standard,but since Taylor has come in he has adapted really well and linked up brilliantly with McDonald again second time around.I think a another year deal would be a good deal,with the option of another if he performs aswell next season.Kedwell deserves a new deal,up until his injury he was our best performing player with Nelson.His work rate is fantastic,and he is up and down the pitch and a big asset when defending.A two year deal would be about right on improved wages.Finally Gregory deserves a new deal.He has his critics as his job is the job that not many see.Today showed we missed Gregory as Bradford were getting through us too easy,Gregory breaks up play and keeps things nice and tidy.I would give him another two year deal.

50 points is usually the mark to keep you up,but the only Team in the last few years to go down on 50 was us .I think to officially secure safety we should target 52 points,so 2 wins and a draw.A win against Crewe would put us in a really strong position.

Agree with the four you mention, I would like to think that now the pressure is off and staying up should not prove to be a problem we could start playing some " real footie", often a team already relegated plays it's best football when it acts as spoiler, stopping someone from getting into the play offs, or dragging a team down with them, so hopefully now were pretty safe some of these guys might wake up and start playing, let us act as spoiler in these next few games.
Hart'pool and MKD both went down with 50 points in 2006 and the year before Torquay went down with 51, so I think 52 is the REAL magic number, lol.