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Surreygill

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Seems to me there's two reasons why our home performances are nothing like our away (since SL).

One is that, apart from Bristol Rovers, most teams don't come at us. And we are clearly a great press and counter attack team.

The other is the pitch.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to get to away games so wonder if the pitches have really been much firmer and easier to play on this season? Anyone tell me?
 
Surreygill - 17/2/2018 11:34

One is that, apart from Bristol Rovers, most teams don't come at us. And we are clearly a great press and counter attack team.
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I think that is a very apt description. Liverpool play that way in the Premier League in a more devastating way, but struggle to break down sides that "sit in" or park the bus leaving no space in behind.

Hence they thrash the likes of Maribor and Porto that have not cottoned on to the way they play and leave spaces, but don't look anything like as effective against sides managed by Mourinho and Pardew.
 
Regardless of nibbles comment on another thread, I see nothing wrong with the condition of the pitch. Also, be fair, we play poorly at home because most of the time we are lumping the ball up in the air in a hopeful attempt to get it over the top of our midfield, direct to our two forwards who are outnumbered by the opposition. If we are not doing that, we are aimlessly heading the ball as far as we can in the hope one of our midfield get it, when nine times out of ten it would help if we didn't panic and direct our heading towards a blue shirted player. The actual amount of time we spend playing the ball on the deck, with measured passing (which can be affected by the quality of the pitch) is minimal.
 
Surreygill - 17/2/2018 11:34

Seems to me there's two reasons why our home performances are nothing like our away (since SL).

One is that, apart from Bristol Rovers, most teams don't come at us. And we are clearly a great press and counter attack team.

The other is the pitch.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to get to away games so wonder if the pitches have really been much firmer and easier to play on this season? Anyone tell me?
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It`s not the pitch. The first reason you mention, though, is beginning to develop an enigmatic complexion, SL will sort it !
 
LancsGordoRoad - 18/2/2018 10:05

It`s not the pitch. The first reason you mention, though, is beginning to develop an enigmatic complexion, SL will sort it !
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Well, Steve certainly think it plays a part in us hoofing rather than passing.

Taken from KoL -
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/medway/sport/gillingham-walsall-lovell-reaction-160282/

"?The pitch cut up a lot, which can?t be helped, that is down to the weather and conditions, I am not using that as an excuse but we tend to play better away from home where we can get the ball down and actually pass it.

?We had to go longer and get the ball into Josh (Parker) and Tom (Eaves) and get second balls off them."

 
Our pitch is no worse or better than most others in this league.

Maybe the lack of passion from the supporters at home has a part to play - the support was awful yesterday and has been at many home games
 
We seem to play a more expansive game away from home and I doubt 2/300 fans make a big difference. Away from home, you expect teams to come at you and time and again we've seen the Gills boss and control games. We failed to get anything at Plymouth because of at least on mistake. Unlike other teams, Wigan seemed to be more cagey at home and hit us mainly on the counter attack but just did enough.

I wouldn't worry about the pitch at Priestfield or the lack of vocal support, SL will get it right, although I'm puzzled that Wilkinson still gets the shout ahead of the others on the bench; perhaps SL is waiting for him to get enough yellow cards to warrant suspension.
 
DurhamGills - 18/2/2018 11:18

Our pitch is no worse or better than most others in this league.

Maybe the lack of passion from the supporters at home has a part to play - the support was awful yesterday and has been at many home games
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I agree Durham, I thought the pitch performed ok as well yesterday, - yes there were a few divots where the guys had been practising before the game started however the groundsmen got most of them sorted just before the game started.

The noise levels could (maybe, should) have been higher - especially in the Medway stand, where I was sitting. There it was really quiet, apart from the odd moans and groans if, and when, something went against us. The Rainham End only involved themselves sporadically however when they did get going, there was some impressive noise coming from my left. Shame that not enough really happened on the pitch to keep them going.

The comments about playing hoof-/headball are, unfortunately, correct and Ben Nugent was the most wasteful in my opinion. His clearances were almost always arial and more often than not, to one of their players however, he was often in the thick of it and, as a defender looked, fairly solid.

What disappointed me most was the attendance yesterday. 4.6k after the midweek win at the Cobblers and the run of results since last October, deserved more - even if the home form is not as good as that away from home.

Maybe Wayne is onto something, get bodies into the gound with special offers......there will always be some who keep coming back after all, most of us fell in love with the team after that first visit to Priestfield Stadium.

 
During the warm up I watched as people rolled the ball under arm along the ground to get them back to where they were needed. The ball bobbled all the way along, actually bouncing up at some points. That is a poor pitch if the ball won't even roll without bouncing about.

Who knows if that the reason we hoof it long. Steve Lovell suggests that in the KOL article and I'll take his word over most of you lot :-)

I think we lack creativity in the middle with Hess, Byrne and Reilly very similar. When fit Wagstaff needs to play for me - at least at home where the responsibility on us is to take the game to the opposition. Steve has the away setup sorted but perhaps he needs to try something new at home. The number of hone draws suggests that we need to try something different to open teams up.

 
I said as long ago as the Peterborough away game i said that we would get more points away .Our midfield has not really opened sides up .Away from home Eaves and Parker test defences at home they generally have a extra man to beat and get less space .If we had more going forward at home IE a extra attacking midfield player we would open ourselves up to the counter attack .This season is all about staying up .We have done brilliant .But their is still a lack of quality .That will show up more at home when teams sit back more against us .Generally at home we have got more points against the better sides who have been willing to push forward more .
 
We had the second lowest L1 attendance yesterday. Couple that with the fact that most of the game was bogged down in an uninspiring struggle in midfield and it's not surprising fans were more quiet than usual. I actually thought there was a fair amount of noise especially in the second half but that turned out to be a futile attempt to suck the ball into the RE goal.
 
I think we missed Lee Martin yesterday and hope he gets back to full fitness sooner rather than later.

Is missing Bingham also a key factor here? Although I personally have never seen him play however he was receiving great plaudits on here just before he got injured!!
 
Vambogills - 18/2/2018 15:37

We had the second lowest L1 attendance yesterday. Couple that with the fact that most of the game was bogged down in an uninspiring struggle in midfield and it's not surprising fans were more quiet than usual. I actually thought there was a fair amount of noise especially in the second half but that turned out to be a futile attempt to suck the ball into the RE goal.
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That is a wonderful description Vambo...... if we could "suck the ball in to the RE goal" it would be packed out every game and there would be a waiting list of people keeping a keen eye on the obituaries to see if one of the ST holders had vacated his/her seat permanently....
 
Judging by our form in general Bingham has been out too long to be considered missing.

As for the crowd, it's simply too expensive for families and those on very low incomes. A thousand kids at a quid each week over 23 or 24 games plus what they spend at the stadium is not a fortune but it's nil if the offer is not made.
 
Wayne.Kerr - 18/2/2018 17:03

Judging by our form in general Bingham has been out too long to be considered missing.

As for the crowd, it's simply too expensive for families and those on very low incomes. A thousand kids at a quid each week over 23 or 24 games plus what they spend at the stadium is not a fortune but it's nil if the offer is not made.
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That would piss off any kids or parents taking kids paying full price or having a season ticket.

The profit (the important bit) from what they spend would be negligible against the extra costs incurred, stewarding, policing etc. Personally I don't think 1000s of screaming kids adds to the atmosphere.

So much premiership football on TV means most kids first team will not be us and they will prefer to watch on the TV rather than in a cold windy stand - heaven when I first went to matches you didn't even have a roof on the stands.
 
DurhamGills - 18/2/2018 17:27

Wayne.Kerr - 18/2/2018 17:03

Judging by our form in general Bingham has been out too long to be considered missing.

As for the crowd, it's simply too expensive for families and those on very low incomes. A thousand kids at a quid each week over 23 or 24 games plus what they spend at the stadium is not a fortune but it's nil if the offer is not made.
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That would piss off any kids or parents taking kids paying full price or having a season ticket.

The profit (the important bit) from what they spend would be negligible against the extra costs incurred, stewarding, policing etc. Personally I don't think 1000s of screaming kids adds to the atmosphere.

So much premiership football on TV means most kids first team will not be us and they will prefer to watch on the TV rather than in a cold windy stand - heaven when I first went to matches you didn't even have a roof on the stands.
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Wayne is clearly suggesting that kids for a quid be a permanent fixture. I can?t imagine that pissing off too many families.

As well as increasing the number of young fans it is more likely to see fathers come along too.

Your point about young people probably preferring premiership teams is a strange one. Should we therefore just give up any hope of attracting a fanbase and watch the club slowly die?

I say do everything we can to get as many young fans through the turnstiles now. These will be the paying supporters in years to come.

 
I actually think the days of going along to football as a first choice for entertainment have gone, far too many other choices.

I had spare tickets for the posh game, literally couldn't give them away. People who I asked were :

a) Taking kids to the cinema
b) Taking the kids to one of the trampoline parks that have cropped up everywhere
c) Taking the kids to a football party at one of the many football centers around the towns.
d) Kids would rather play X-Box.

I don't think a cold day sitting in the stands watching what is generally fairly drab fare competes any more, especially at full price but also it doesn't seem to be desirable even at fiver.

When I was an early teens none of the above existed. Grandstand or World of Sport on one of the three TV channels that existed. Going to see live sport was magical because there wasn't much else to do. Now days kids have a multitude of things to do that are frankly more entertaining and better value for money than going to the Gills.

I don't know what we can do to address it. It is a fine balance though - too many discounts and people will give up on season tickets. Not enough offers and we are stuck with 4-5K as the best Gills will get.

Hard to see what we can do to be honest.
 
markinkent - 18/2/2018 18:58

I don't know what we can do to address it. It is a fine balance though - too many discounts and people will give up on season tickets. Not enough offers and we are stuck with 4-5K as the best Gills will get.

Hard to see what we can do to be honest.
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Surely the obvious answer is to significantly reduce the cost of season tickets.
Then loyal fans are rewarded and it would increase the attendances as we wouldn?t be as reliant on the pay on the day or pick and choose bunch to boost the numbers.
Presently the child season tickets are excellent value but I?m not sure the adult rates circa 400 represent great value for the entertainment on offer.
 
nibbles - 18/2/2018 17:44

DurhamGills - 18/2/2018 17:27

Wayne.Kerr - 18/2/2018 17:03

Judging by our form in general Bingham has been out too long to be considered missing.

As for the crowd, it's simply too expensive for families and those on very low incomes. A thousand kids at a quid each week over 23 or 24 games plus what they spend at the stadium is not a fortune but it's nil if the offer is not made.
Click to expand...

That would piss off any kids or parents taking kids paying full price or having a season ticket.

The profit (the important bit) from what they spend would be negligible against the extra costs incurred, stewarding, policing etc. Personally I don't think 1000s of screaming kids adds to the atmosphere.

So much premiership football on TV means most kids first team will not be us and they will prefer to watch on the TV rather than in a cold windy stand - heaven when I first went to matches you didn't even have a roof on the stands.
Click to expand...

Wayne is clearly suggesting that kids for a quid be a permanent fixture. I can?t imagine that pissing off too many families.

As well as increasing the number of young fans it is more likely to see fathers come along too.

Your point about young people probably preferring premiership teams is a strange one. Should we therefore just give up any hope of attracting a fanbase and watch the club slowly die?

I say do everything we can to get as many young fans through the turnstiles now. These will be the paying supporters in years to come.
Click to expand...

No I dont think we should give up but the football industry has changed - before Sky kids never saw a division 1 match live - best you got was 20 minutes of highlights in black and white so they soon lost interest now you can watch nearly every match live on a 50 inch screen.

Look at the crowds we used to get in the past compared with now (and the population has increased).

We cant drop prices as players demand outlandish wages for what used to be a everyday job.

Get one extra adult is probably better revenue wise than 10 kids
 
Short term is simple. Whilst the core fans can see the change in performances but in general if you are a casual and not attending you just see a team in the lower/middle of the table. If we get into the top 6 then you will see attendences grow again, lets face it even the fans that do attend at home are mostly quiet.

Until we get those 50 points then SL will err on the side of caution even at home. The interesting time will come once we have the 50, will we be more open and attack more. On saturday we were set up to firstly stop the oppo attacking and then play on the break, mainly I believe because Walsall are a counter attacking side. Also we needed to strengthn the central midfield as in both the last two home games the midfield was wide-open. For me we would have wanted fast wingbacks in that formation and young Nash on for the last minutes but the priority was obviously to get at least one point more towards survival.

After 50 points and pushing for a playoff place do you think we would keep with what has been successful or go all out whilst giving some of the other players a chance?

Long term as I say winning brings in crowds but I agree with Wayne that we need to look at incentives for youngsters and families. I would go further e.g. look at how many seats we can spare and then have a deal (whilst also working with schools) of say a pound for kids when accompanied by an adult and a fiver for older kids that dont need to be accompanied. Lets face it we could try to fill at least 1-2,000 seats that way.

 
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