Early in the first half I don't think many of us would have seen anything for us in that game. They passed the ball about efficiently, appeared to be playing within themselves and scored an eary goal. I have never seen a Gills team have so little involvement in the first 15 minutes. It was weird as others have said and by the end I thought we deserved to win and was less impressed with MK.
How much pointless possession do you want in your own half and how much confidence in your own collective technique do you need to actually have a go at the opposition. I couldn't watch that junk every week. It's all very well saying it takes courage and patience to play that way but I'd say the game proved the opposite. We had the courage and the patience and got the rewards. O'Keefe stayed just the right side of the line before and after his card and was effective throughout. A more cultured version of the Dave Martin role, the half way line, maybe 5 yards and then no further. The left side stayed calm in the face of a pacy and skilful right wing back and ultimately subdued him. and we didn't over compete in the press. Correct me if I'm wrong but Jackson tracked his man a couple of times and was aware of the space behind and O'Connor made a couple of tackles. I think they expected to tire us before finally venturing for the points. We have seen other sides adopt those tactics and fail after gathering admirersi. 44 points and counting.
I agree with most of that - especially that it takes more courage to play the way we did as we take a risk in and around the box of getting a cross or shot in, which often leads to losing possession, but will occasionally lead to a goal, whereas if you keep passing it around in safe areas, you'll rack up the possession stats and can't concede, if you keep it, but you aren't going to create as many clear cut chances and that proved the case last night. The best example was in the second half when MK had the ball on the edge of our box and must have passed it about 7-8 times around the box when they had at least three chances to pull the trigger or put in a 50/50 through ball which coulh have been intercepted but could also have lead to a great chance. In the end, they lost it and we cleared.
Good point about O'Keefe. Now he's nearing full fitness, he looks like the missing link that we've lacked all season - that man to put his foot in and do the ugly work. I think his more defensive work in the midfield helps the defenders and leaves them less open, which maybe why Jackson and Ogilvie looked more steady last night. The defence is still making individual errors, but I think a lot of that is down to the youth of Tucker and Cundy playing together - both have been guilty of not clearing simple balls recently and have cost us a couple of goals. Hopefully, they'll learn quickly. Bonham, whilst making some good saves is still shaky. It's such a shame that we let the talented Walsh go, and I would envisage for not a huge amount. As Bonham has no competition really and if the season goes we're it's looking to go (i.e. unlikely to get near the playofss and, at the moment [touches wood] even more likely to be in a relegtion battle), it would have been a great opportunity to blood Walsh.
Dempsey continues to be a star and, for me, is now edging ahead of Graham in the player of the season stakes. With that in mind, the form of Graham and Lee, for me, is waining a bit (despite Graham's excellent penalty last night). I remember with his last spell with us, Lee broke onto the scene with some cracking performances, but flattered to deceive a bit after that. Is Graham slowly starting to get found out by League One defenders and coaches now? To be honest, I am not sure how great scouting is at this level and it may have taken each team to play us once to clock that Graham's prodiment move is to go as wide as possible and get the cross in. He also needs to make sure he's nowhere near our box. Quite why he dsecided to dribble out of his own six yard box, I don't know. He could have given a goal or a pen away as he made a very clumsy tackle - it wasn't a foulm, but gave their lad a chance to go down and the chance for the ref to give a soft penalty - we've seen it happen this season. Great penalty though. Oliver continues to wonder and frustrate in equal measures with some brilliant physicality and effort but some really clumsiness - in a way, he reminds me a bit of a slower Hanlan, but thankfully he's get a much better eye for goal, which is the main thing.