The Official Francis FC Match Thread (sponsored by Winkelman Removals "for all your relocation needs") | Page 11 | Vital Football

The Official Francis FC Match Thread (sponsored by Winkelman Removals "for all your relocation needs")

Although in my defence it is still only 9:30 here in good old Blighty. I haven’t suggested it yet, but she’s had the hump ever since she got home from work.

I guess a hard fought 3 points against the odds just doesn’t have the same effect on everyone. 😔

Question answered.....
 
Who's side are you on?
I was gonna ask Sturdy the same question. I’ve looked at the highlights again. Nailed on handball penalty. If you ain’t giving that, you ain’t giving any of them. His arm is by his side but he leans that way to stop the ball with his torso and arm. Pen every day.
 
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 early 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 admirers. 44 points and counting.
 
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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.
Good analysis. Jackson's best game this season imo in spite of me tempting fate near the end of the game and posting that he was competent.

MKD's completely overdid the tippy tappy stuff. Such play at our level invites trouble, as we saw with Oliver's goal.
 
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.
Cultured and Dave Martin - not often heard in the same sentence!
 
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.
 
Good analysis. Jackson's best game this season imo in spite of me tempting fate near the end of the game and posting that he was competent.

MKD's completely overdid the tippy tappy stuff. Such play at our level invites trouble, as we saw with Oliver's goal.

Still doesn’t stop a lot of people on f/b forums saying he was rubbish again.

Some players just get marked by some fans no matter what they do.
 
Still doesn’t stop a lot of people on f/b forums saying he was rubbish again.

Some players just get marked by some fans no matter what they do.
I've been a constant critic because he's been woeful, imo, on a number of occasions, even taking accoint of the lack of support he gets. However, I've never questioned his effort and if someone plays well (or even just better than previous crap) they deserve credit for it. Pleased for him too.
 
Another win, another three points, well done Gills. Nice attractive football from MKD`s and, possibly like many others, fifteen minutes in, I thought we were in for a drubbing

Better performance from O`Keefe but O`Connor is still struggling to find his form of last season. We are better when we press high and hard against good passing teams like MK, but two of our best proponents of that style, Slattery & McDonald, are missing so it took some time, and maybe a forced stoppage by Jackson (smart guy if that`s the case) to adapt and at least look like we might get a foot in.

I liked that our boys never had their heads down throughout a game in which we were, at times, pretty uncomfortable. We were also positive whenever an opportunity came to attack the MK goal and, though it might have been an injustice, the boys in blue could have scored four or five !

A good win which will boost confidence in the camp ahead of another big test on Saturday. Paul Cook is a really good manager (IMO) and it wont take him long to get his new team into gear. At Accrington last night, Ipswich were a bit lucky as, shortly after Accy took the lead early in the first half, Stanley were down to 10 men (red card). Ipswich won 2-1.
 
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I love some of BFSE's mischievous comments about MK's style of play on Kent Online today:

“In fairness to them we knew how they would play, their goalkeeper would have the most possession, more than any outfield player for sure, that is how they play."

“Their idea became ‘how many time can we pass it back to the goalkeeper and pass it to the centre back and back to the goalkeeper.’ I would certainly have difficulty watching that most weeks."

:LOL:
 
I was gonna ask Sturdy the same question. I’ve looked at the highlights again. Nailed on handball penalty. If you ain’t giving that, you ain’t giving any of them. His arm is by his side but he leans that way to stop the ball with his torso and arm. Pen every day.
To be honest not had a chance to look at the replay, my initial instinct was that his arm was by his side and I thought the ball hit him fairly high on the arm- hence my comment at the time of “harsh” if (at the time) that had been given against us I would have been upset.

To answer the other comment I thought it was fairly obvious who I support.
 
To be honest not had a chance to look at the replay, my initial instinct was that his arm was by his side and I thought the ball hit him fairly high on the arm- hence my comment at the time of “harsh” if (at the time) that had been given against us I would have been upset.

To answer the other comment I thought it was fairly obvious who I support.

Just looked at the highlights and agree a penalty. Arm goes to ball hits the bicep - didn’t see it that way at the time
 
To be honest not had a chance to look at the replay, my initial instinct was that his arm was by his side and I thought the ball hit him fairly high on the arm- hence my comment at the time of “harsh” if (at the time) that had been given against us I would have been upset.

To answer the other comment I thought it was fairly obvious who I support.
Given that the player who committed the handball is quoted as saying that when he scored he was making it up to his teammates when he scored the equaliser, I think it’s safe to say he’s admitting it was a handball.
 
Given that the player who committed the handball is quoted as saying that when he scored he was making it up to his teammates when he scored the equaliser, I think it’s safe to say he’s admitting it was a handball.
I guess it depends on how high up the arm
It hit him as the top of the arm is not handball - players in Premier League have been deemed offside / onside by VAR judging whether the top of their leading arm is in front of the defender or not.
 
Just looked at the highlights and agree a penalty. Arm goes to ball hits the bicep - didn’t see it that way at the time

The key for me is how far the ball travelled to hit his arm and the speed it did, which was a fair few yards and pretty slowly. He had plenty of time to get his arm out of the way, but instead left it there, so think had can have no complaints, which to be fair he didn't with only Lewington for MK seemingly fairly tamely querying it.
 
Still doesn’t stop a lot of people on f/b forums saying he was rubbish again.

Some players just get marked by some fans no matter what they do.

Along with 58 I've been one of his most vocal critics on here but some of the stuff on FB is just baffling. Thought last night was one of his best performances since returning and he got two assists (do throw ins count in assists charts?).

Don't think Jackson is great defensively and at times his positional sense and awareness of danger is woeful most of the time but he is left exposed by the system we play offering little protection in front of him.

Hope we get many more performances like last night going forward.