Gillingham v Swindon Town- Match Thread

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

Gills are back in action at Priestfield on Tuesday Night against old rivals Swindon Town.Can we make it three wins in all competitions in a week,and get 6 points from the first three League games? What Team would you play?

[fan_of_mulligan]

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

----------------------------Bywater-----------------------------------
------------Legge-----------Egan-------------Hause-----------------
Fish-------------------------------------------------------------Loft
-----------A.Morris------Hessenthaler----------Pritchard--------------
------------------Kedwell-----------------Norris--------------------

Subs: G.Morris (GK), Davies, Staunton, McKain, Dack, Dickenson, German

I think we will stick with the system that has seen Gillingham win both matches against Yeovil Town, also with Brennan Dickenson not fully fit and we're not sure when Jermaine McGlashan is going to be back, 3.5.2 / 5.3.2 is the formation that suits the players who are fit and available for selection at the moment.

I am expecting Josh Pritchard to make his full debut for The Gills tonight as Doug Loft will start in the left wing back position simply because we have not got anyone else who can play there, hopefully the eighty plus minutes will have done Matt Fish some good and he be fit enough to play the full ninety minutes against Swindon Town, I would start Luke Norris alongside Danny Kedwell and use either Antonio German or Brennan Dickenson as impact substitutes late on in the match where there pace can stretch teams and give tiring defences problems in the latter stages of the match.

I just hope we start better then we did on Saturday, we got lucky against Yeovil Town but Swindon are going to give us a much tougher game, Swindon have got better players and there more likely to end in and around the playoffs then Yeovil Town are, hopefully Swindon can continue there appalling record at Priestfield Stadium and we can pick up another home win - COME ON THE GILLS!!!!!!

[gillsfan1066]

Quite a week for our new keeper, saves a penalty one game ,scores a goal the next. Thought we had all 3 in the bag tonight, interested to hear how we played, according to the scrolls I was reading it appeared that Swindon looked more like the home team then the Gills ?

[gillsfan1066]

Guess everyone is still in the boozer ??

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

I listened on Gillsplayer,and they said Swindon were the better side and at least deserved the point they got.It did sound like they had a lot of possession in the game and the stats show they had more chances.It was a surprise when we went 1-0 up as Swindon started better.They said Kedwell did well to score his goal.Swindon`s pressure finally paid off on 43 minutes and it was 1-1 at Half-Time.Taylor made two bold subs by bringing on McGlashan & Dickenson so we had outlets and it paid off after 51 minutes as Hause scored with a good shot into the top corner.If only Dickenson could have made it 3-1 when he hit the bar which would have killed the game off.The commentators said Bywater made some important saves,so it was frustrating that after his good work he threw the ball into his own net in the 90th minute.It is always disappointing to concede late on and stop a win,but with Swindon being the better side a point has to be a good result.

[gillsfan1066]

Thanks Buddy, I didn't realize he had thrown it into his own net, bet he feels like you know what, OR did he have a big bet on with that secret gambling syndicate headed by Li**it, that meets at Gillingham Railway Station ,platform 3, every Monday morning, 9am and puts huge amounts of cash on games, often as much as two pounds fifty pence ? Just thinking out loud.

[Rimshot]

GFC concede a last minute goal - no longer news,just a regular update. Again the match stats look awful for a home game, we had one corner to their ten and 35% possession ? I know the figures vary from source to source but all seem agreed we were outplayed.

I'm sorry to say the early signs are just as per seasons past; a team stitched together from the unproven and unknown along with the remnants of last year's squad. Let's hope something can be done with them, over to you PT.

[Garawa]

Swindon had by far the greater share of the ball but did hardly anything with it. Every throw got passed back into their own half where they passed the blooming ball to death and even took very short corners so they could pass the ball some more! They had chances and Bywater made the best saves but we created the best chances and although we had seen little of the ball I felt we deserved our 2-1 lead. Swindon pressed as you would expect any side to do but we conceded from a nothing sort of chance. Their forward found some space on the edge of the 6 yard box and virtually passed the ball to the highly impressive Bywater before that point who fumbled it into the net. Just one of those things really. The early formation that worked well against Yeovil didn't last night (different personnel I guess) so Taylor made two changes and switched to 4-2-3-1 and we were much better then. In this case the stats don't tell the story of the game and a late equalizer is very disappointing but I can't argue with how we responded to not really getting into the game and should have won it.

[Kent_UckyFriedGills]

Swindon had by far the greater share of the ball but did hardly anything with it. Every throw got passed back into their own half where they passed the blooming ball to death and even took very short corners so they could pass the ball some more! They had chances and Bywater made the best saves but we created the best chances and although we had seen little of the ball I felt we deserved our 2-1 lead. Swindon pressed as you would expect any side to do but we conceded from a nothing sort of chance. Their forward found some space on the edge of the 6 yard box and virtually passed the ball to the highly impressive Bywater before that point who fumbled it into the net. Just one of those things really. The early formation that worked well against Yeovil didn't last night (different personnel I guess) so Taylor made two changes and switched to 4-2-3-1 and we were much better then. In this case the stats don't tell the story of the game and a late equalizer is very disappointing but I can't argue with how we responded to not really getting into the game and should have won it.

Swindon reminded you of Walsall last season then Gary?

[Garawa]

Funny that, I said the same thing Tuesday (same score wasn't it)?. Absolutely, very assured in possession and in total control yet never really went anywhere. I guess they hoped to play it about, wear us down and find a gap but we had 5 in midfield so they they never really found one. It ended up a case of having the ball and not really achieving what they hoped. We had to change the formation in order to get hold of the ball and added pace and it improved things greatly. They still dominated the ball but nowhere near as much.

[Rimshot]

We're supposed to be at home !

[Garawa]

Are you going by the possesion stats though Rimshot? The formation didn't work, Taylor changed it and it was much better. I remember last season Real Madrid managed to win 4-0 against Bayern Munich despite only having 30% of the ball! Attacking wise we looked the more likely to score so you can't ask for much. If they sat with it by their own corner flag the whole game they would have 100% of the ball despite not doing anything with it!

[Robpthegills]

Last season there was some very high profile games where clubs gave up a lot of possession yet managed to win the game.

It is rare, that is why the press pick up on it when it does happen. Also if you are a team that is going to allow another team a large amount of possession you have to have a very good defence and something special in your locker to get the breakaway. The problem is the last chances you create puts more pressure on those opportunities.

Last season and this season we seem to be down to 40 percent possession on a lot of occassions. We will go nowhere anywhere fast with that.

[Rimshot]

If you have team of superstars you can probably get way with 40% possession - especially if that produces 4 goals. If you are a League One side with no outstanding creative players I suggest it's a recipe for mediocrity.

[fan_of_mulligan]

There is a league within a league in League One and you would assume that Sheffield United, Bristol City, Preston North End, Peterborough United, MK Dons, Leyton Orient and Swindon Town will be the top seven this season, they have the resources and the financial firepower which is unattainable for ourselves and it helps when Swindon Town spend £500,000 every year to loan 4 -5 promising players from Tottenham's Youth / Reserve Set Up.

I don't think you can fault the effort, commitment or work-rate from The Gills but we defiantly missed Doug Loft and Aaron Morris in the middle of the park on Tuesday Night as they would of given our midfield more composure on the ball and the midfield might have pushed further up, we also got to take into consideration that if it wasn't for Stephen Bywater then Gillingham could of lost 5 - 2 as Bywater made 3 - 4 outstanding saves to keep The Gills in the match and it was so disappointing that Swindon's equalizer came from a goalkeeping error from a goalkeeper who kept us in the match, if Swindon belted one into the top corner then you would have no complaints.

Gillingham have score eight goals in four games but we have also conceded seven so we look like a side that will score and concede goals this season, we got six different goal-scorers in Danny Kedwell, Aaron Morris, Kortney Hause, Cody McDonald, Brennan Dickenson and Joe Martin and all the while your scoring goals you got more of a chance of consolidating your position in the league, also if someone said to us two week's a go that Gillingham would beat Yeovil Town twice, draw Newcastle United at home in The League Cup and get a point against Swindon Town then we would of taken that.

Last Season Gillingham lost 1 - 0 to Colchester United, drew 1 - 1 with Brentford, drew 1 - 1 with Bristol City and lost 1 - 0 to Bradford City in our first four home league games, we are unbeaten at home this season with four points against Yeovil Town and Swindon Town so we're off to a much better start this season.