My ramblings during and after todays game .

chris who

chris who

Vital Football Legend
Reily been best player so far. Some good stuff by team followed normally by a dogs dinner pass by someone.

Good half Reily clear best player Parker also good .Still throwing away good positions with sloppy passes .

The players gave it their all so pleased for Elliott List great strength and skill to get the goal .The players and staff were joined by fans in celebrating .We never gave up but Bristol Rovers perhaps should have put it to bed .Reilly man of match without a doubt. Garmston was poor .Zakuani made a difference. But we suffered across most of the team by the odd very poor pass .Garmston gave their forward a golden chance with a short back pass. Which he messed up in the first half .Reilly's tackles and passes were a cut above .But end of the day it was Elliott who won us the point and safety. Perhaps he should be considered for another year ?Perhaps he could start next week?

Nashy was clearly jubilant with List he was lifting him up high etc after the final whistle.

Scunthorpe and Plymouth play each other on Tuesday if that is a draw or a Pilgrims win Charlton will go to Rochdale on Saturday needing to win and some fans made tempted to go to Priestfield and hope Plymouth get beat .

Had some good trips this year while Bristol was not my favourite trip .That crown has to go to Scunny again only just in front of Rotherham and Pompey. Worst Southend without a doubt. .A lads trip to Sunderland is a must next season.
A return to Scunthorpe or Rotherham or both depending on the play offs . if that was the final I would be tempted to go .League one next season a clear out is needed. I have a feeling Garmston is still worried about injury he and O'Neil are at half pace .With Bradley you can perhaps understand it given his record .A injury now and it could finish him .

Holy
under contract staying unless someone buys .Could not be faulted today .Defence switched off for goal .
O'NEIL under contract a disappointing end to the season .Bristol Rovers repeatedly got down both flanks .Linked up with Waggy a few times to affect .
Garmston I think he will be released. Sorry one or two runs apart a shadow of the player we have seen .
Ehmer two more years already signed did OK today.
Zakuani solid as usual. Distribution was poor as usual too .However if we can improve the midfield he could be of higher value to us .if would like to keep but international call ups,his distribution and injuries could mean Lovell may look elsewhere. Given he has already agreed on Ehmer. A close call for me .
Byrne bristol had a good midfield with only short forwards they needed to play to feet .Byrne was one of the most guilty of poor distribution today .Most players were doing it .Mark was as busy as ever .I think he still has another year and I am happy for him to stay .He never gives less than 100%.
Reilly was my Man of the match while he did play the odd poor pass .He was excellent at both ends of the pitch .Love to sign him up if Bury make him available.
Waggy gave us width he can and did get forward well however like almost everyone was sloppy too .Doesn't do enough defensively for me unless playing a wing back .Another tough call but given he will be one of our highest earners in view of his move was from Bristol City. (Given a hard time by Rovers fans today .)Thought he did OK today .But too much of a luxury for me money is needed in other areas .
Martin showed how much it meant to him today should have scored with a free header about 8 yards out in the second half. Like Waggy out of contract Lovell clearly values him .When he plays well he is clearly our most talented player .Another tough call .If Lovell can get a real leader he may well depart .Personally I think I would offer him a deal but perhaps a little less than his current one certainly no more.
For me at least one of Waggy and Martin have to go to bring in a proper winger .with a bit of pace a silky skills.
Parker I was impressed today he played a slightly deeper role more centrally. Got about the pitch well like most did good and badly places passes on almost in equal measure. I am not sure if he is in contact I would like to see him stay .Like Byrne he can be disappointing but has something to offer .
Eaves was close a few times to getting that goal today .fails to look up too often .Lovell has gone on record staying he is looking forward to working with him in the closed season. A must keep for me a lot more to offer a good first season at Gills .
Wilkinson under contact hard too see Wilkinson other than negatively trying I believe hard to believe any league club will put a bid in .Did not do too bad today .I can't see him leaving but Lovell may try to get shot of he can .
List up to the goal for me he was out the door .Not convinced. However no doubting that goal showed strength speed and skill .He needs to be consistent. Made life harder for Lovell for sure .Like to see him given a hour or so next week make or break maybe .Have a feeling that goal could give him much more confidence in himself. But Wilkinson's effort at Pompey perhaps was the same in some ways .
Difficult one now .No doubt cheapish could pay dividends. I await his start next week a reserve judgement.

Hess did not play today still under contract. Always 100% but seems to lack enough to test teams at this level. A season on loan perhaps or squad player .Can't see Jake being disruptive so happy for him to be around the camp .
The three Lovell brought in in January could well go Navid being close ish to a deal but not sure he has enough to improve the team .I doubt with our youth coming through he will get anything.
Ogilvie unbelievably bad for his age as a spurs player they can have him back .I would pay for his rail ticket myself if it was to make a difference.
Lacey not given a chance by Lovell liked him when I saw him i have a feeling he will leave .
Nugent that Garry Richards type defender who along side a good ball player like Kingy makes a good combination. I think he is still under contract so I don't see him going anywhere given Lovell has used him and he has been affective. If we are keeping Zakuani I think I would be more inclined to let him go .Get in a quality defensive player or two who are comfortable on the ball .Then I would be happy to keep him .A lot depends on Lovell's plans .
 
I enjoyed reading that Chris. Some well thought out observations. Will be very interesting to see our starting XI in August. Likely to be much changed.

And if it is changed for the better you’d have to think we’d do ok. SL (despite the last 10 games) has shown that he can get a team of nobodies that looked relegation Certs, to play well enough to match most teams on their day. Over the past 5 months we have had some cracking results as well as some shockers.

Personally I am looking forward to next season. Bring it on.
 
Agreed although the fare served up at Priestfield has been on average very poor. Without funds it is hard to see how we will progress. You only need look at today's 9,700 crowd to see there are massive problems even matching the likes of Rovers let alone anyone bigger .It is possible to do a Shrewsbury but tough given what we have signed already .Lovell needs to get everything right to get near the summit next season .Starting with the new contracts.
 
Forgot about Morris, Bingham ,Nash and There are of course the young players some of who maybe on the frame next year .Although I would think Cundle may have had his time .Of course Morris with the amount of time out of the game will almost certainly get released. I can see the club offering pre season though to help him if he wishes .If fit in would have loved to sign him .We could certainly have done with him this season .
Bingham looked class if he is in contact I would love to have him available next season. It is no coincidence that some of our season best performances were with him in the side .
Nash I am certain has another year however I am sure we will have a few sides making enquiries about his availability. My guess is we will sell him .But if the lad wants to stay and fight for a place we should applaud that .I have a feeling Lovell maybe able to help one or two during the close season .
I am not sure Nash was up to the massive jump he was asked to make .Maybe another option would be a half or full season loan .Perhaps even to join Ade Pennock at Barrow .That would at least give us options for the following season if his career did take off we could extend his contract.
Aso for any others well I will leave that in Steve Lovell's hands .
 
chris who said:
Forgot about Morris, Bingham ,Nash and There are of course the young players some of who maybe on the frame next year .Although I would think Cundle may have had his time .Of course Morris with the amount of time out of the game will almost certainly get released. I can see the club offering pre season though to help him if he wishes .If fit in would have loved to sign him .We could certainly have done with him this season .
Bingham looked class if he is in contact I would love to have him available next season. It is no coincidence that some of our season best performances were with him in the side .
Nash I am certain has another year however I am sure we will have a few sides making enquiries about his availability. My guess is we will sell him .But if the lad wants to stay and fight for a place we should applaud that .I have a feeling Lovell maybe able to help one or two during the close season .
I am not sure Nash was up to the massive jump he was asked to make .Maybe another option would be a half or full season loan .Perhaps even to join Ade Pennock at Barrow .That would at least give us options for the following season if his career did take off we could extend his contract.
Aso for any others well I will leave that in Steve Lovell's hands .
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Very good observations and hopefully SL will be able to get in enough quality so he has a starting eleven and a bench that gives him some depth.
 
Thanks Wayne .None of my friends could go so most of it was texting them .I copied and pasted it .As I have said Lovell has some incredibly tough calls to make .We do need a clear out but there are very few that will definitely go .
 
Agree with your summary Chris and i`d probably pick Reilly as MOM too. Thought Garmston looked pretty dangerous every time he got forward but, as you imply, his defensive play let him down a bit too often. I prefer our play with Reilly in and Hess out. Would like to have seen Moussa given a chance, maybe next week ?
 
Chris -Don't agree with some of your observations on yesterdays game-
Firstly I thought Parker was very poor produced no clear cut chances - and isn't that his role ? too many poor passes. You say that he impressed you but how can that be if you say that he had a lot of poor passes ? Martin is the issue for me he gets into the box and creates chances but then his passing was worse than anyone . Our forwards play as individuals and not as a team for me.
Although Eaves has scored what is it 15 goals ? he has a lot of improvements to make. Should he have scored more goals SL thinks so a lot more goals.
I thought Garmston was pretty solid in defence he was given a job to keep Byron Moore quiet and I think he did that quite well. Moore got substituted as he was having no luck- Garmston has had to change his game and running technique, he gave one poor back pass but nothing else got past him. I think he will be offered another contract. I agree he looks dangerous going forward. Hes much improved on Ogilvie although to be fair I thought Ogilvie has done ok for most of the season, yes hes had a few dodgey performances of late . Most of the team especially martin was guilty of miss passes. What else did he do wrong ? Oh yes one foul throw big deal. I think our wide midfielders Waggy and Parker were slow getting across to Rovers full backs and it created a 2 on 1 for the full backs at times. It was left for Reilly to cover their backs. O'neil did ok and was pretty steady but again was exposed because of our wide midfield not covering their players. He put one absolutely perfect free kick into the box which Martin headed over and it was easier to score.
Overall the back four looked solid to me.
How should Rovers have put it to bed ? I think we created the best chances. Their goal looked off side. They played a lot in their half but how often was Holy tested ? he had very little to do. Yes they had a little midfielder who buzzed around a lot but didn't do anything because he was snuffed out by our defence and midfield.
It was good to see List scoring yesterday he is young and maybe Lovell will want to work with him more. Who Knows ?
I like your assumption that Martin is on big bucks and its very gracious of you to keep him but offer him less money ?
Their goal looked offside - so I don't think our defence was at fault.
On another note their was a lot of abuse to our players from some of the younger group of so called supporters, how is that going to help out team especially one idiot constantly calling Eaves a F... C.. it would be better if they stayed at home it doesn't help the players.
I do agree with Reilly as our MOM until he got in the way and stood on Garmston's foot as he was about to shoot in the first half lol.
We all see things a bit differently
 
On Parker i did feel first half he had looked effective all be it I agree we were not working as a team .Garmston is a massive improvement on Ogilvie without a doubt .But I do feel he is still a long way from what he was .I do believe that Martin was like Parker working for the side but mixing good and bad .To find a budget Lovell needs to cut the squad it is not going to be easy with whom he has out of contract .Yes I do believe Martin and Waggy would be earning more than most at Gills but maybe nowhere near the highest in our league .That being the case I would not be shocked to hear that they would both be offered less given our crowds etc and there availability etc .Signing both may not be a option if we need a new forward and rebuilding the midfield .We will have Nelson off the books altogether of course we I am sure he is still being paid a small amount by us .
We seem to already have a bench of players IE Hess,Nugent ,Lacey,Oldaker ,Hadler ,Wilkinson ,Nash and a few others signed up .So I would expect few if any squad signings .It maybe hard on a few out of contract that may well have done far more than those who are likely to stay .We have to hope one of two of the younger players step up pre season and demand a place in the starting line up .
 
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