Failure at gills.Who do you remember most about . | Page 2 | Vital Football

Failure at gills.Who do you remember most about .

I actually think Bullock wasn't as appalling as people thought. For example, I honestly believe he played ok when we were trounced 5 0 at Colchester.
 
Here we go again. Paul Shields wasn't shit. He came from Forfar, who were a part-time team so he wasn't fit. When he got fit he has a stunning game when he helped us beat Premiership Portsmouth in the League Cup. He then suffered an injury and was released before he'd had a chance to recover fully. We never had the chance to see him to fully judge his ability or whether he was a sicknote.

Hislop was shit though.

Think examples of fine lines would be Luke Rooney and Jack Payne. Rooney had ability but didn't have the right attitude. If he had put the work in he could possibly have gone upwards but instead spiralled downwards. Not sure how well he did in the States but is now at Welling while still only 29 (footballer's prime age).

Jack Payne is a strange one for me. He clearly had ability and did well for us. Went to Posh in the Championship and their fans raved about him in their first season. Then it all seemed to go to pot. Not sure why, as he seemed to have his head screwed on right, but he's still only 28 but is at Eastleigh.
 
Not exactly on-subject but whenever we let anyone go that some of us had high hopes for, we always fear that they will end up thriving at a higher level.

Rarely happens, Marlon Romeo excepted.

Many posters here still bring up Brennan Dickenson but he has only been plying his trade in League Two, now at Exeter after leaving Colchester via MK.

In recent years we have had Luke Rooney, Jack Payne, Luke Norris, etc, end up in divisions below us and never kick on.

Maybe, just maybe, the coaching staff see things that the fans are unaware of.

I can not recall any players other than Romeo, who we released voluntarily that are now playing in divisions above us.

The club clearly recognised the talents of the likes Egan, Dack and Eaves but they were tempted by richer clubs near the end of their contracts.
 
myonlygillingham said:
Tony Bottiglieri, Gerry Summers had high bhopes for him . Played a few end of season matches for a couple seasons but drifted out of the gamme.
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Tony Bottiglieri sadly lost interest (confidence?) in the game after his brother broke his leg (playing I think for Leybourne Grange) and died following complications with the injury. His first appearance was on the subs bench at the Old Racecourse ground at Chester in what was Tony Cascarino's second game. A boring 0 -0 draw but I can't remember if he got on or not. Gills had played away at Burnley mid-week and had a lot on injuries. The public address man said that there were so many changes from the programme he would read out the names of the players. When he got down to the last two i.e. both Tonies he said that he had no idea how to pronounce the names and apologised for his efforts.

To my mind the biggest failure for me was Billy Hughes. Amazingly talented as a teenager moved on to Selhurst Park and was never really heard of again.

Biggest disappointnent was Jimmy Corbet, moved to Blackburn for big money and suffered serious ankle injuries which prevented him from realising his potential.
 
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Buddha said:
What about Neale Cooper and a couple of his signings, Steve Hislop and Paul Shields?

They were all shit.
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I thought Shields showed potential in what little pitch time he got. By all accounts it was the step up and demands of full time training that his body just couldn't handle.

Edit: Note to Captain, read whole thread before posting. What Detritus said.
 
Bert said:
Tony Bottiglieri sadly lost interest (confidence?) in the game after his brother broke his leg (playing I think for Leybourne Grange) and died following complications with the injury. His first appearance was on the subs bench at the Old Racecourse ground at Chester in what was Tony Cascarino's second game. A boring 0 -0 draw but I can't remember if he got on or not. Gills had played away at Burnley mid-week and had a lot on injuries. The public address man said that there were so many changes from the programme he would read out the names of the players. When he got down to the last two i.e. both Tonies he said that he had no idea how to pronounce the names and apologised for his efforts.
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If I'm not mistaken Tony Bottiglieri grew up in Gillingham. He was part of the 'little italy' community , and shared cousins with Fantetti's off-licence near Ingram Rd level crossing. I never knew his brother died 😕
 
All I remember about Hislop is one game at Priestfield where he and Shields both played, I think he hit the bar with a header from a central position, but spent most of the game shouting at his teammates, I don’t think our style of play suited him or it was too different to the Scottish league he came from. Shields was more of a support striker and linked up play with some decent touches but was never a threat on the opponent’s goal.
 
Buddha said:
What about Neale Cooper and a couple of his signings, Steve Hislop and Paul Shields?

They were all shit.
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I was thinking about Cooper, I think it was 442 magazine that predicted us as champions in their season preview, they praised Cooper highly. Sadly it doesn't look like Cooper was shit, more like his demons got the better of him.
 
Billy_Bleach said:
I was thinking about Cooper, I think it was 442 magazine that predicted us as champions in their season preview, they praised Cooper highly. Sadly it doesn't look like Cooper was shit, more like his demons got the better of him.
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It seems to me he was s very northern/Scottish manager who did not have enough knowledge of the players in this part of the country. I would hazzard a guess that some of the players he wanted were not prepared to come south for the amount of money we had on offer.That resulted in Cooper lowering his sights on those he could get.
 
I liked Shields, he looked like a tidy player, just not physically capable. Wasn’t he at Celtic at one point? If so, he must’ve had something about him.
 
who was the lad that was an instant success and got a move to a bigger club fairly quickly , only to end up in non league. Was it Pat Gavin
 
chris who said:
Perhaps I did not make myself clear I was looking for players .That never made a full season in league football never first choice and that most of us had forgotten. Perhaps Ashley Miller was a poor example. I did think of using Nigel Donn who I seem to remember had a well squeaky voice. That made me laugh .
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I played in Bearsted Vets with Nigel Donn and he was bloody brilliant (compared to me) as was Kenny Hill in defence.
Andy Ford was our manager.
We weren’t bad for a load of old duffers.
 
shotshy said:
I played in Bearsted Vets with Nigel Donn and he was bloody brilliant (compared to me) as was Kenny Hill in defence.
Andy Ford was our manager.
We weren’t bad for a load of old duffers.
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Who do you play for now ?
Walking football is meant to be fun 😃
 
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