The Official Harrogate Town Match Thread (Sponsored by For the Love of God, Win the Game Gills "for all your desperation needs") | Page 13 | Vital Football

The Official Harrogate Town Match Thread (Sponsored by For the Love of God, Win the Game Gills "for all your desperation needs")

NWBluesFan said:
Joe Simpson, Assistant Referee. It wasn't just because he missed two offsides in the build up to goals (one was close, but one was well off) or that he routinely was in a position to actually assist the referee with some calls (which he seemed not to see, despite dozens of us behind him seeing them clearly). No, the issue I have is that for a guy who gets paid to meet certain standards of athleticism to perform his duties... I can't fathom how he passed the fitness test. He wasn't just slightly out of shape - he had a gut that an 80s professional darts player would envy. He was frequently behind the play and for the last goal, that was how he missed what was a good yard+ offside.
Yes, yes, I know he didn't cost us the game - that was our fault. But he was bloody awful and it needs saying.
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He had one absolute shocker in the first half as well. Hawkins was a mile offside and knew it as a ball was played forward, so he made no attempt to go for it, and let the ball run. Mahoney, who was much deeper and being played onside by at least a couple of players, came running through to try to latch on to it, and the assistant put his flag up. Didn't really matter, as Harrogate cleared anyway, but an absolutely awful call.
 
HerrLjunga said:
Any specific examples though? Because zero shots and five goals conceded is going to take some beating in comparison.
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York city away circa 1980. Something. A Sir Keith side lost 7-1. Don't remember much about the game apart from thd round of applause we got from the York fans around us for chanting we want 2.
What I do remember is the horrendous hangover the next day and dry retching most of the way down the A1 home.
 
Been away over easter so didnt see either game. The nil nil a bit predictable but the stuffing not. This season has imploded

As others have said we lack leadership. Too many nice guys, no steel and no one to tell the players how it is.

Ehmer has never been a leader of men like true captains and I imagine an "angry" clemence is a shadow of a slightly dissatisfied Pulis or Evans. Two proven winners against an unproven coach.

Still guess there a a few players thinking I couldnt have played at league one level now so maybe I'll be ok for another season in league 2.
 
Archiepoptart said:
York city away circa 1980. Something. A Sir Keith side lost 7-1. Don't remember much about the game apart from thd round of applause we got from the York fans around us for chanting we want 2.
What I do remember is the horrendous hangover the next day and dry retching most of the way down the A1 home.
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I forgot that one, had to go back and check.

Nov 84. York 7 Gills 1

Sir Keith had started well at Gills with a 6th placed finish in L1 in his first season. We then “slumped” to 13th year 2 and only 8th in year 3.

Then 84/85 when said game happened. After a fair start to the season, we had a run of games where we lost 1-4 at home to Millwall, 0-2 at Bristol City and 2-5 at Brentford. A good 4-1 win v Reading, then a draw before this horrendous result. At that point our run was W1 D2 L4 of which 3 were drubbings. What were the owners thinking keeping him as our manager!!

Luckily after that result we W12 D2 L2 to put our season back on track and eventually finished 4th, 4pts behind promoted Hull.
 
GillsFan22 said:
Has he actually improved our attacking play though? Or has he just had the benefit of Hawkins being available which Harris and Millen didn’t this season?
I personally think people have overstated our first half today slightly. Better team? Definitely. Plenty of chances? Not that I saw. Their defender headed a ball over his own bar and we had two powderpuff shots from the edge of the box. Aside from that the best chance of the first half fell Harrogate’s way.
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This is my thinking. Also add in the fact that he has been provided with Hutton who has these amazing attacking stats and is supposedly one of the best at providing assists in Europe, etc.

Before I get pilloried, I acknowledge things were not necessarily better under NH and we could conceivably be in the same place as I think he only took 7 points from his last 7 games but the stats have not actually improved. Despite both Hawkins and Hutton being available since the turn of the year, we have 40 goals from 42 games and the goal difference continues to go southwards. Minus 12 now.

Hutton is also now being played in a back four, nullifying his attacking skills and exposing his defensive frailties.

Hessy8's comments about the structure and how separating recruitment from the coaching is very pertinent too. As he says, in theory it means removing a coach will not result in a huge expensive turnover of players. For that reason, should we not have expected a "new manager/coach bounce" which never came?

Whichever way you look at it, where we have gained something, we have lost something else. We are getting more away wins, but yesterday accentuated the fact that we are still horribly inconsistent.
To counter that, although we have not lost at home this calendar year, we have had so many home draws that we might as well have lost two and won one - we would have had the same number of points.

Towards the end of last season, the main reason we stayed up was that we won a lot of games at home from the turn of the year and but for the Colchester aberration - our first sign of inconsistency - and the Mansfield injustice, we would have been continuing that strength at Priestfield this season as well, until the changes were made.

Truth is I don't know whether SC is the long term answer or whether his coaching with revitalise us in the long term. I would really like to know whether HE still has full confidence in his coaching powers and a vision on how to put things right. I hope so.
 
Classic “on the beach” performance this team does 45 minutes only a match, wondered if you have strong binoculars if they could see Whitby sands and fancied that instead.
 
I'd love to know what was said at half time for them to look like a completely different team.

Was Clemence trying to hang on to a 1-0 lead?

"Are you not entertained?!" No, not really Maximus. Sort it out mate.
 
The thing is I feel some of the football we played in the first half was quite tidy. Control with first touch then move it forwards at pace with the second. We didn’t carve out many real chances, but I got the feeling that we actually had some ball players in this team. To then come out with that second half was just so perplexing.

I want us to go out and build a spine in the summer. A real midfield general and possibly an upgrade in a defensive CB too. It’s not like our recruitment department have had three windows to rectify it.
 
SE1_Gills said:
I'd love to know what was said at half time for them to look like a completely different team.

Was Clemence trying to hang on to a 1-0 lead?

"Are you not entertained?!" No, not really Maximus. Sort it out mate.
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We definitely came out very flat. That said, I can't imagine he said 'make loads of defensive errors and chuck in the towel early'

Oh to be a fly on the wall.
 
Trev_GFC said:
I want us to go out and build a spine in the summer. A real midfield general and possibly an upgrade in a defensive CB too. It’s not like our recruitment department have had three windows to rectify it.
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Co-sign.

Maybe we've been spoiled over the years but it's definitely missing.

Coleman is a terrific young player but he's isolated in there. We need a true game-changing No.8 and a dominant - perhaps even slightly nasty - centre back that has the respect of the squad and picks players heads up.

523 is this team's best option right now, IMO, allowing Hutton to attack properly.
 
By the way (I’ve not heard the full interview only read snippets so correct me if I’m wrong), but in Brad and Joe Comper’s media piece last week did they not say about only looking to add 3 or 4 players this summer?

If true, then this hope or expectation from many of a mass squad transformation in the off-season is perhaps misplaced.

It’s the catch 22 of having a bigger budget I suppose - you entice players with more money on longer contracts which protects your assets if they succeed, but on the flip side makes them very difficult to shift in they don’t perform, a dilemma we’ll probably have with many of this crop as I’m led to believe there are very few out of contract.

Bringing this back to Clemence and why I have serious doubts, if the above is true and we are looking at a limited amount of signings, then this means we’ll be going into next season still ultimately relying on Clemence to get a tune of a hefty chunk of the existing squad, something he’s proving he cannot do so far.
 
GillsFan22 said:
By the way (I’ve not heard the full interview only read snippets so correct me if I’m wrong), but in Brad and Joe Comper’s media piece last week did they not say about only looking to add 3 or 4 players this summer?

If true, then this hope or expectation from many of a mass squad transformation in the off-season is perhaps misplaced.

It’s the catch 22 of having a bigger budget I suppose - you entice players with more money on longer contracts which protects your assets if they succeed, but on the flip side makes them very difficult to shift in they don’t perform, a dilemma we’ll probably have with many of this crop as I’m led to believe there are very few out of contract.

Bringing this back to Clemence and why I have serious doubts, if the above is true and we are looking at a limited amount of signings, then this means we’ll be going into next season still ultimately relying on Clemence to get a tune of a hefty chunk of the existing squad, something he’s proving he cannot do so far.
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I'd take the 3 or 4 players line with a massive pinch of salt.
 
GillsFan22 said:
We’ll see. Like I say though us bringing in more than that will rely on us shifting some of what’s here, which won’t be easy if underperforming players are on good wages.
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At the very least, Mahoney and Walker will be going back and Hurtado will probably be loaned to a League One club so that's 3 places vacated. S Williams will surely be at the end of his contract and either go non league or retire, bringing it up to 4.

On the assumption that Bonne will not be coming back and it was not too much trouble to find new clubs for him and Nichols in January, there may be more interest in our players than you might imagine.

If the rumours are correct that Jefferies wants out, that is another vacated squad spot.

Jayden Clarke will not be on a high salary as he was clearly a B Team signing so if he has not impressed, he may move on as well.

From the point of view of a midfield general, I find it interesting that Kyle Dempsey has been on the Bolton bench for the last few games. If they are promoted to the Championship, they will be signing some upgrades and he may be on offer or released. Still only 28, so worth a punt?

If only he was a southerner, I would think it might even appeal to him particularly as a change of scenery may get him away from this:
www.bbc.co.uk

Footballer Kyle Dempsey and father spared jail after 'merciless' attack

Bolton's Kyle Dempsey and his father rained blows on a social club doorman.
www.bbc.co.uk
 
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GillsBluenose said:
At the very least, Mahoney and Walker will be going back and Hurtado will probably be loaned to a League One club so that's 3 places vacated. S Williams will surely be at the end of his contract and either go non league or retire, bringing it up to 4.

On the assumption that Bonne will not be coming back and it was not too much trouble to find new clubs for him and Nichols in January, there may be more interest in our players than you might imagine.

If the rumours are correct that Jefferies wants out, that is another vacated squad spot.

Jayden Clarke will not be on a high salary as he was clearly a B Team signing so if he has not impressed, he may move on as well.

From the point of view of a midfield general, I find it interesting that Kyle Dempsey has been on the Bolton bench for the last few games. If they are promoted to the Championship, they will be signing some upgrades and he may be on offer or released. Still only 28, so worth a punt?

If only he was a southerner, I would think it might even appeal to him particularly as a change of scenery may get him away from this:
www.bbc.co.uk

Footballer Kyle Dempsey and father spared jail after 'merciless' attack

Bolton's Kyle Dempsey and his father rained blows on a social club doorman.
www.bbc.co.uk
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Malone may attract interest in the Summer. Would Glen Morris want another season? I don’t know these contracts. Is Turner out of contract? I believe we can do better but happy with either of these on the bench, but there’s the possibility that both may want to leave.
 
Billy_Bleach said:
I'd take the 3 or 4 players line with a massive pinch of salt.
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Agree. As GBn has pointed out, there’s likely to be at least 6 spots vacant by those that we know are probably off. Walker, Hurtado, Bonne, Mahoney and likely SW and Dom Jeffries.

Can add Masterson to the list, who most say only signed for 1 year as he probably will have L1 offers. Same for Malone. And surely Max and Glenn Morris are coming toward the end or used as a squad players only next season. That’s 8 maybe 9

I will also be very surprised if both JW and Lapslie are here next season. I expect they’ll both have options (maybe Lapslie back to Mansfield?) and I don’t think Clem would try too hard to keep either if they did have offers. In fact we might even gracefully allow any player to leave if they wanted without actually pushing any of them.

At a guess I’d say there will be at least 7 or 8 new faces in our squad despite what Brad said. I think he was just being non-controversial. No need to upset contracted players by suggesting that more than the “out of contracts” would be going.
 
As a further point. The only players that I think will very likely still be here next season are -

Turner, Ogie, Clark, Hutton, Dieng, Coleman, Andrews, Hawkins. Plus 1 of JW or Lapslie.

Nads, Clarke, Jeffries, Mackenzie and a few others, depends if they get offers.

Can build a decent team around those bodies if the incoming includes some quality CB’s, dominant CM’s and a goalscorer or 2.
 
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