Today's game

K

kettners

Vital Squad Member
Well we were packed into the right hand side of the ground
We started with a flat back four and we looked good first half. Deji playing right back struggled against a cheating Thomas who was playing left wing - who fell at every occasion he could. Deji booked first half and became frustrated. JED decided to take him off at half time as I feel he would have been sent off eventually.

Pask moved to right back but clearly is no right back and moved back to centre half as wagstaffe moved to right back second half
We played well first half and dack combined with wright to score a great goal . We created opportunities in both half but never really troubled there keeper Alnwick.
Bond made two outstanding saves one in each half
Ehmer solid but just lumps the ball down the pitch.
In the second half our midfield just dropped too deep. Wright looks pretty on the ball but gives it away and stands off his attackers. This increases the pressure on our defence he did score a good goal.
Byne looked ok first half but again dropped too deep inviting pressure on our defence
Cody was a loan striker and ineffective jet gave us nothing in the last ten minutes
List played well and will be a good player
Paddy did a few of his unpredictable specials and then tried to do too much at times.
We miss some blistering pace on the left as konchesky faded in the last 20mins and was steady without being spectacular.
For me our problem is midfield dack was better today but still a little way off his best.
Yes we could have won today I was gutted when vale equalised but devasted when Alex Jones scored the winner
 
I think everything you said kettners is true and to many of the team can not get used to JED keep changing the formation from game to game.
 
i personally feel he should keep this formation away it looks solid. The players as you say Gills 46 need to get used to a certain formation. I do feel JED is up against it. Who knows what may have happened if we had had a fit martin garmston and Morris. It would have given JEd so many more options.
 
Apologies to all fr my brief description of yesterdays events -we can await Waldo for his more accurate take on the game and scores
 
First 30 minutes slick on the ball and full press when they had it. Then we seemed to run out of steam and couldn't keep the ball. As the better half said when she bothered to lift her nose out of her novel, there looked to be more Vale players by the end and they all looked bigger and stronger than us. Good afternoon out though, and great support.

UTG
 
I thought that the game was distinctly a "game of two halves"

In the first half we were excellent. We pressured Port Vale relentlessly and harried and played them off the park. There were some spells of very good football from the Gills and Bradley Dack was immense; everyone on our team was working really really hard. In that first half nearly all the action was down the far end, the goal that the Gills were attacking. We played a physical game and Port Vale simply couldn`t get the ball off us. It`s true that we conceded a fair number of free kicks from individual battles. It`s true that some of our tackling was a little over-zealous but it`s also true that the Vale players were dropping to the ground at every opportunity making it six of one and half dozen the other. Taking Oshi off was probably a good decision as he was surely headed for a red card. HT 1-0 lead was the least Gills deserved, we should have been two or three up.

Then, there was the second half ! We expected Vale to come out and take the game to the Gills. They did but we seemed to handle it pretty well for the first 10- to 15 minutes. It was clear though that our tactics had changed and instead of working the ball forward we defaulted to hoofing it upfield only for it to come straight back putting a lot of pressure on our goal. It was all very negative and it was only a matter of time before Vale took complete charge of the game and made us pay. Vale were the better side, by a big margin, in the second half.

Losing Bradley in the second half was unfortunate. He was absolutely top-notch prior to getting substituted. In terms of form make no mistake, Bradley is Back ! It is difficult to tell from the terraces just how knackered a player is; tbh though it seemed to me that Bradley still had plenty of running in him went he went off. To me it looked like our most "knackered" player was Cody, he worked his socks off.

Dack was the MOM in my opinion. Have to say though that the performance of Bond was excellent also. Apart from one terrific reaction save, he had little to do in the first half. Second half was a different story and saw Bond make two or three incredible saves - he is a very good goalie.

Cody worked his socks off yesterday and Wagstaff`s play was commendable seeing as he was playing out of position. I thought the team played well tbh. There was no lack of effort and i can`t fault the commitment of any of them. I have to be honest and say that the difference in the two halves was substantial and i`d have to put the loss down to the negative default play in the second half.
 
For those who were at the game was Cody played as a loan striker ? If so did it work for him. I never think he is cut out for that role and is much better playing off a partner. Just wondered whether he looked like getting many chances in that role - if he was played as a loan striker that is.
 
Mark, yes Cody was the lone striker. It meant an awful lot of running for him ! Thing is in the first half our midfield was very attacking and was forcing play into the Vale third of the park. That play was creating opportunities and i felt that it was working pretty well. Second half when we were hoofing it Cody was constantly running lost causes. IMO it would have been better to have brought JET on earlier to replace Cody as he would have had a better chance of holding some of the hoofed balls.
 
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