Crawley (H)

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

We`re back at home this Saturday,and this is the first of two home games in four days.Crawley travel to Priestfield off the back of a 1-1 home draw with Stevenage.They have a lot of games in hand,but have played four games since the end of January and are unbeaten in those games,and in all games unbeaten in six games.They were dragged near the bottom four where they could not play any games due to a waterlogged pitch,but they have done well and with more games in hand they look likely to finish comfortable midtable.

We come into this game off the back of a 2-1 defeat at Bristol City,and that was our third defeat in a row.I think it is important we get the three points from this game,and 4-6 points from both of the home games coming up in the coming days.We currently sit just three points above the bottom four,and only a few weeks ago we looked comfortable while winning one game,and losing the other.A win would give us a bit of breathing space,another defeat would make us worry about relegation a lot more.

What Team would you play? Harriman and Kedwell are both out for longer,German is back from his loan spell but will probably not make the bench.I would start Lee after his second half performance at Bristol City.

Nelson
Hewitt,Legge,Barrett,Martin
Gregory
Smith,Lee,Dack
Akinfenwa,McDonald

Subs:Baxter,Davies,Hessenthaler,Linganzi,Fagan,Weston,Pigott

[Garawa]

I think they are going to struggle! They have one of the smallest squads in the league and must play Tuesday, Saturday until virtually the end of the season. Another postponement and they are in trouble! Its fine playing regularly whilst you're winning but maintaining that run will be tough!

Please play Cody and Pigott! We need to get off to a good start and two goal-scorers will help!!

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

I don't mind what Team we play as long as we win ,but Bayo played really well in the second half at Bristol City.He held the ball up well,and his flick ons were in the right areas.If Pigott is on the bench,then hopefully we would bring him on earlier than on Saturday.

[Garawa]

We have stuttered in the goal-scoring front of late so we need to change it. If we want to win games, we need to score goals and we brought Pigott in to score goals but we don't use him. That doesn't make any sense at all. He has played 146 minutes since he arrived out of a possible 540, playing slightly over a quarter of a match on average. A striker can't do much with that! I would rather we get into a 2 goal lead than bring him on to rescue a game to be honest.

[gillsfan1066]

Another great team arrives at Priestfield for Saturday's clash , a team ,who without doubt will end up in an automatic promotion spot, along with Sheffield and Bristol City, can't imagine why teams like Orient , Wolves, Rotherham and Pt'rbrgh are even bothering to play out the season, might as well chuck it all in now and except they will be playing First Division football next season while the aforementioned charge into the Championship.
Hey gwade when do we get to play the s**t teams , everyone we seem to play lately are on the verge of greatness , are we the only s**t team in the division ?
By the way I will send Noircat a twenty to buy you a couple of beers on prize giving night if Sheffield make it to an automatic spot, I will buy all your beer that night if BC or Crawley make it.
Win for the Gills this weekend 2-1, this is a MUST win game, even the manager who does not strike me as the brightest candle in the box must be able to see that with the schedule we have ahead of us. GO BIG BLUE kick the s**t out of Crawley.

[Garawa]

We have to win this game, they don't have the same quality players that City do. You virtually advocate we should beat every side not in the top six away from home! We didn't even do that last season when we won the league!!

If Crawley win all their games in hand they would be in a play off spot easy (easier said than done). Had Coventry not been deducted points they too would probably end up in the play-offs. Will Sheffield Utd or Bristol City? I doubt it but they will be close and higher than us and that would be about right. So who do I consider to be the poorer sides (along with us) in the league: Notts County (we won & lost once against them), Shrewsbury (lost once), Stevenage (won & lost once), Crewe (won once), Tranmere (won once), Colchester (lost twice), Carlisle (won twice) and Oldham (lost twice) - the ones in bold we still have a game still to play against.

That's not a good record is it and these teams have less quality players than the likes of Bristol City. I also wouldn't expect us to finish above all of these as this would leave us 16th in the table so yes, it wouldn't be a shock if Utd and City shot up the table and given that Utd are already 10th, finishing just outside the play-offs can hardly be a shock. You can't look at table positions to work out who is rubbish! Man Utd may be struggling but Rooney, Mata and Van Persie are hardly bad players that should lose games, a similar analogy can be applied to City. Likewise Crawley may "only" be 14th but winning their games in hand puts them 6th.

I think it is quite feasible we will lose our next 4 or 5 away games (Bradford, MK Dons, Peterboro, Leyton Orient, Walsall) but our home games are more than winnable bar Coventry and Rotherham (Crawley, Crewe, Tranmere, Shrewsbury). We must win those and hope we do our usual of performing against the better sides to nick a point or six there.

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

I think March will define whether we will stay up or go down.If we get 9 points from this Month we`re nearly safe.3-4 points and with the tough set of fixtures coming in April it will be squeaky bum time.Crawley is a massive game,and we need to avoid a fourth straight defeat.4-6 points from the two home games will give fans a bit of confidence.

[Garawa]

Some facts for the game tomorrow can be found here: www.gillinghamfcforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=912

[gillsfan1066]

Tomorrow is a big day for us THREE Points for the mighty Gills needed three points a must. gwade I don't think for one second I expect to win all the games , I just think that if we had picked up 3 points at Notts Cty and Stevenage, picked up 3 or four points from the home games against Oldham, and say Stevenage, we would all be sitting here tonight happy campers knowing we were home and dry. Instead I admit I am a little worried we may end up having to get three or four points from the last couple of games of the season against PNE and an already relegated Shrewsbury, that would love to take us back down with them. Gods of football I hope not.

[gillsfan1066]

Well done the BIG blue machine , 3 wonderful points for the Gills. Didn't doubt you would do it. OK got to run to Best Buy, get a new laptop for the wife, hers had a nasty accident around the 80th/ 85th minute and the screen kind of came off in my hand, just a few seconds before we scored. Nice gap of 6 points between us and the drop zone.

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

I only listened to the game today,but the first half didn`t sound great from our point of view,and Crawley had a couple of decent chances to go ahead in the first half.The second half seemed better,and they said McDonald was denied by their keeper,It seemed Crawley deserved atleast something from the game but they were wasteful.Lee came on for the second week in a row and scored again off the bench.Lee looks up for the fight and could play a big part in helping us stay up.We know he is a good player,but we have not seen it enough.Now is a great time for Lee to keep playing well with his contract up at the end of the season.Today`s win was massive as it wasn`t the best performance,but we got the luck for a change.At Oldham a few weeks ago we deserved the win and got nothing,so today`s win makes a nice change.

The win puts us on 41 points,so with another home game coming up on Tuesday hopefully we can atleast get something from the game.Another win would put us not far off safety.

[Garawa]

It was one of those funny games really. 0-0 would have been a fair result really but both sides could have been 2 or 3 up before Lee scored. There must have been at least 2 chances for both sides where I was saying "it has to be a goal" but somehow was put wide or over the bar. In truth it was quite a poor game and they are ones the home sides must win and we did. Thankfully Matt Tubbs, 6 goals from his 7 games for Crawley, had a quiet game. Coventry are a on retched run and I was happy with a win Saturday and draw Tuesday but 3 points are more than achievable.