Tonights match. | Vital Football

Tonights match.

Lets see if we can push the home contingent to over 5,000 tonight; can't see many travelling from Shrews as they will be saving their pennies for a trip to Liverpool
 
and which Shrews team will turn up - one taking us on with the euphoria from their Liverpool comeback - or (more likely?) one where they try to ensure they don't get injured before Liv game and so instinctively pool out of the 50:50s

No doubt Jason Cummings will be putting himself about for 60 m,ins

Prediction: and early goal will ensure the Shrews go quietly down 2-0
 
Was the gate announced? My block was largely empty. A shame as it was an entertaining game!
 
Broncos77 said:
and which Shrews team will turn up - one taking us on with the euphoria from their Liverpool comeback - or (more likely?) one where they try to ensure they don't get injured before Liv game and so instinctively pool out of the 50:50s

No doubt Jason Cummings will be putting himself about for 60 m,ins

Prediction: and early goal will ensure the Shrews go quietly down 2-0
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Good call. They weren't really interested. Not taking anything away from the Gills' performance though. We are making genuine progress.
 
Don't know his name (search engine not working) but I think it was Aaron Pierre, the big coloured left back, was fouling almost from the start of the game, but was not penalised by the referee at all.
As for the shoulder charge on one of our players down at the Rainham End to allow the ball to go off for a goal kick, their player was about three foot away from the ball when he charged sideways into our player, almost sending him through the hoardings - no reaction from the referee for blatant GBH!
 
daveycrocket said:
Bitterly cold tonight. I'll be amazed if the gate is more than 4500
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To be honest, for a January night, I thought it was quite mild. I said to myself (as I was the only one in talking distance) that the crowd looked about 4000.

I enjoyed the match - not our best performance and Shrewsbury were poor, but that's credit to us. Evans has really instilled some grit - reminds me of the early Pulis days when we played some good stuff, but could really mix it and were very physical, and were also happy to contest things on and off of the pitch fairly and unfairly if need be. It's a huge gulf from managers, coaches and players standing with hands on hips, as we are kicked off of the park and match officials are giving every 50/50 the other way (usually with someone like Evans on the opposing bench) and barely an eyelid is raised from our players and coaches.

The only criticism is that we didn't kill the game earlier - we had chances to be 3 or 4-0 up in the first 80 minutes, with Shrewsbury only really creating a couple of fortuitous half chances as a result of ricochets around the box. Shrewsbury, finally looked more dangerous in the last 10 minutes as they threw men forward and created a couple of decent chances, and at 2-0 you always worry that one could lead to two, but to be fair it wasn't one way traffic in the last 10 as we continued to push forward and created chances. A two goal victory was fair and probably the minimum we deserved from a well drilled and battling performance in a Scrappy game.

Akinde could be a huge signing for us. He's the missing link for me - we finally have that big man who can compete physically and in the air up top, which we've been craving all season. He's also quicker than he looks for a big man - early impressions are that he's very much in the Iffy mould. Pringle was excellent too - his touch was excellent. Always seemed to get and keep control of the ball and his passing, crossing and shooting is another area we have been lacking and he could really fill. Willock looked quality when he came on - some good touches. I'm sure when he's match fit, he'll be immense. Roberts looks dangerous and a livewire, but I thought his touch, on occasions, was poor and positioning as an out and out centre forward not always great - time and time again, Akinde won balls and it was crying for someone to be near him or running on, but Roberts seemed to be too deep or too wide. My first thoughts on him are that he'll be a better winger in a 4-4-2 or wide forward in a 4-3-3. As I say, he was still a menace and a good option, plus allows Hanlon some much needed rest and competition. With rest in mind, I am a bit concerned about the amount of minutes our established, but excellent, back four are playing - I can't really see like for like quality replacements for them if any get injured, suspended or need a rest.

The ref last night was abysmal. Seemed to completely lose the plot in the second half, making some bizarre decisions - not all against us to be fair. Akinde, for example, in my view was a tad lucky to stay on having been booked, for catching the keeper, even if the keeper made a massive meal of it - what it wasn't though, was a throw-in to Shrewsbury; it was either a foul on the keeper or throw-in to us, as there was certainly no contact on the ball from the big man, even if the contact on the keeper was minimal. Similarly, there looked to be a trip on Akinde in the box before the actual pen (which was the right call, tbf) was made - the ref gave a corned; again it was either a penalty or goalkick as the defender made no contact on the ball - it's debatable as to how much contact he made with Akinde. Both sets of players and fans were frustrated with the decisions and things started to boil over in the second half, which made for entertaining viewing, but was unnecessary.

Finally, I see the comments from Shrewsbury's manager in the KoL saying that we were like a rugby team and it was a game of rugby compared to Sunday's match which was a game of football. he might be right on once sense, but most of the rugby was played by Shrewsbury - I think Owen Farrell would have been proud of the tackle on Akinde for the penalty! And it was Shrewsbury who worked the referee's pencil way more than GFC players. The Shrews' managers come across as a big time Charlie living off of a good result on Sunday and looking down on the day job and his peers, despite the fact that it was his team who were more responsible for any ugliness last night! That's the good things about the Gills, our fans and generally managers - we know what we are, accept it and work from that as a starting point - we're a lower league club with limited budget and need to scrap to achieve anything. There are too many Fancy Dan lower league managers, whose teams are in the same boat as us, who seem to want to present an impression that there teams play some sort of liquid football when they don't. I missed the Rochdale home game and watched on iFollow and for the first half for some reason we had the Rochdale comms and they seemed to want to present that their team play some sort of ultra passing game and the pitch would hamper them, whereas in reality, what they played was a physical long ball game, centred around smashing the ball to big men up front.
 
SteveTreacle said:
To be honest, for a January night, I thought it was quite mild. I said to myself (as I was the only one in talking distance) that the crowd looked about 4000.

I enjoyed the match - not our best performance and Shrewsbury were poor, but that's credit to us. Evans has really instilled some grit - reminds me of the early Pulis days when we played some good stuff, but could really mix it and were very physical, and were also happy to contest things on and off of the pitch fairly and unfairly if need be. It's a huge gulf from managers, coaches and players standing with hands on hips, as we are kicked off of the park and match officials are giving every 50/50 the other way (usually with someone like Evans on the opposing bench) and barely an eyelid is raised from our players and coaches.

The only criticism is that we didn't kill the game earlier - we had chances to be 3 or 4-0 up in the first 80 minutes, with Shrewsbury only really creating a couple of fortuitous half chances as a result of ricochets around the box. Shrewsbury, finally looked more dangerous in the last 10 minutes as they threw men forward and created a couple of decent chances, and at 2-0 you always worry that one could lead to two, but to be fair it wasn't one way traffic in the last 10 as we continued to push forward and created chances. A two goal victory was fair and probably the minimum we deserved from a well drilled and battling performance in a Scrappy game.

Akinde could be a huge signing for us. He's the missing link for me - we finally have that big man who can compete physically and in the air up top, which we've been craving all season. He's also quicker than he looks for a big man - early impressions are that he's very much in the Iffy mould. Pringle was excellent too - his touch was excellent. Always seemed to get and keep control of the ball and his passing, crossing and shooting is another area we have been lacking and he could really fill. Willock looked quality when he came on - some good touches. I'm sure when he's match fit, he'll be immense. Roberts looks dangerous and a livewire, but I thought his touch, on occasions, was poor and positioning as an out and out centre forward not always great - time and time again, Akinde won balls and it was crying for someone to be near him or running on, but Roberts seemed to be too deep or too wide. My first thoughts on him are that he'll be a better winger in a 4-4-2 or wide forward in a 4-3-3. As I say, he was still a menace and a good option, plus allows Hanlon some much needed rest and competition. With rest in mind, I am a bit concerned about the amount of minutes our established, but excellent, back four are playing - I can't really see like for like quality replacements for them if any get injured, suspended or need a rest.

The ref last night was abysmal. Seemed to completely lose the plot in the second half, making some bizarre decisions - not all against us to be fair. Akinde, for example, in my view was a tad lucky to stay on having been booked, for catching the keeper, even if the keeper made a massive meal of it - what it wasn't though, was a throw-in to Shrewsbury; it was either a foul on the keeper or throw-in to us, as there was certainly no contact on the ball from the big man, even if the contact on the keeper was minimal. Similarly, there looked to be a trip on Akinde in the box before the actual pen (which was the right call, tbf) was made - the ref gave a corned; again it was either a penalty or goalkick as the defender made no contact on the ball - it's debatable as to how much contact he made with Akinde. Both sets of players and fans were frustrated with the decisions and things started to boil over in the second half, which made for entertaining viewing, but was unnecessary.

Finally, I see the comments from Shrewsbury's manager in the KoL saying that we were like a rugby team and it was a game of rugby compared to Sunday's match which was a game of football. he might be right on once sense, but most of the rugby was played by Shrewsbury - I think Owen Farrell would have been proud of the tackle on Akinde for the penalty! And it was Shrewsbury who worked the referee's pencil way more than GFC players. The Shrews' managers come across as a big time Charlie living off of a good result on Sunday and looking down on the day job and his peers, despite the fact that it was his team who were more responsible for any ugliness last night! That's the good things about the Gills, our fans and generally managers - we know what we are, accept it and work from that as a starting point - we're a lower league club with limited budget and need to scrap to achieve anything. There are too many Fancy Dan lower league managers, whose teams are in the same boat as us, who seem to want to present an impression that there teams play some sort of liquid football when they don't. I missed the Rochdale home game and watched on iFollow and for the first half for some reason we had the Rochdale comms and they seemed to want to present that their team play some sort of ultra passing game and the pitch would hamper them, whereas in reality, what they played was a physical long ball game, centred around smashing the ball to big men up front.
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Cheers Steve, interesting summary. With regard to Roberts, at Rochdale, when he was immense, he played just behind the front two - it clearly suited him. And with reference to our "rugby " like play - i`m quite glad that the opposition view and sample our physicality - it was sadly missing at the start of the season. Our new found grit and tougher mentality is fine by me !
 
I thought one of the strangest decisions from the ref (assuming what the commentators said was correct) was in the 2nd half when both Jones and Ogilvie got injured in the same passage of play. Jones seemed to be worse, and was getting treatment from the physio. According to the commentators (didn't notice myself whether it was true or not), Ogilvie didn't get any treatment, yet the ref then ordered them both off the pitch, meaning we had to take an attacking free kick with only 9 men on the pitch, and missing one of our main threats up front from that kind of set piece in Ogilvie.
 
I thought first 20 minutes last night we to predictable and went to direct to Akinde, the ball was like a hot potato, but after scoring from the first passage of football we played we settled down and started to mix when we played and when we went more direct and to good effect creating some good openings with good passing and movement.

The second half was a bit more of a grind without us ever really creating any clear cut chances or being under any real constant pressure or threat from them either.

Pringles showed his class last night and deserved MOM, and Akinde showed great strength and at times guile despite spending most of the match being handled like he was playing rugby. We have become a well organised effective team under SE. Not always pretty, but effective.

Strange how their manager likened the game to rugby, after all his players spent half the time shanking it into touch, man handling our players and rolling around in the mud pretending to have been pollaxed (take a bow O'Leary, ******) . I guess thats what you get for coming from Wales (almost).

Rickets whinging makes the victory all the sweater IMO. Let's have some more whinging managers.
 
madrid_gill said:
I thought one of the strangest decisions from the ref (assuming what the commentators said was correct) was in the 2nd half when both Jones and Ogilvie got injured in the same passage of play. Jones seemed to be worse, and was getting treatment from the physio. According to the commentators (didn't notice myself whether it was true or not), Ogilvie didn't get any treatment, yet the ref then ordered them both off the pitch, meaning we had to take an attacking free kick with only 9 men on the pitch, and missing one of our main threats up front from that kind of set piece in Ogilvie.
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Ogilivie and Jones were both down and the ref gave the free-kick for the foul on Ogilvie. He called the trainer on but as he did Ogilvie got up so the trainer went straight to Jones who was still on the floor and as you say looked in far more trouble than Ogilvie had, but when restarting the game made both players leave the pitch despite Ogilvie not having received treatment.

The ref had a twenty minute period where he totally lost the plot and acted like a complete bellend, giving some really poor/strange decisions.
 
I thought the new lads made the difference and Pringle especially but what really mystifies me is the insistence on us playing hoof ball when it is patently obvious that when we kept it on the ground and played football we looked dangerous - that first goal was real class. Even Tucker is caught up in the hoof ball spell. The problem starts with the defence obviously but the defensive midfielder should be more assertive and take more control. With Pringle he had the perfect foil and even O'Keefe was more active. Apart from the penalty, Lee was an observer and little more. Akinde shows what Mandron should have been doing [and he's fast] and Willock has got a physical presence. In the second half, the Shrews keeper didn't have a shot of note to save; so, SE has much to work on, although the team looked better equipped. Roberts got through a lot of good work and a few more games should see him get a bit smarter.

PS I thought Fuller looked knackered during the warm up and I found it hard to believe he lasted the match. Joking aside, I doubt he broke into a sweat or struggle for breath. Long may it continue
 
To be fair to Ricketts, I don't think he directly accused us of being a rugby team but just said it was a rugby match when compared to Sunday.

He would be on pretty thin ice as they had three bookings to our one and committed 19 fouls to our 14 according to BBC Stats.

It always makes me laugh when managers at this level make out that their team play an exclusively passing game. Every team mixes it up and you would be an idiot trying to play out from the back every time as the other team then just has to press in order to dispossess defenders in dangerous areas. There were some comments about Rochdale attempting that on Saturday and losing possession regularly.

The own goal that Shrewsbury's defender (Love) scored for Liverpool on Sunday was a perfect example. Noboby near the lad who shinned it in to his own net. That is the technical level that we are at.
 
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The Ogilvie, Jones incident was even more bizarre than some realize, The ref started by trying to send off Pringle, before his mistake was pointed out to him. :ooops:
 
I enjoyed it (but clearly softer than Steve as I was really cold).

Glad to see Pringle play - someone who can cross at last.

I liked the look of Akinde but hope we play more football than lump it up top to the big man. Roberts looks very mobile and could link up well with Akinde in time.

One thing that did bug me was the Ehmer trying to hold the ball in the corner when the PA announcer said 6 minutes of injury time. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he didn't hear the annoucement because there was no way we are going to hold it for 6 minutes.

Go for goal we are 2-0 at home. Not 1-0 up with 9 men.

Overall good result and the promise of a decent second half of the season
 
Johngill said:
Sadly exiled in Newcastle.
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Sadly?

I moved to Gosforth for 9 months for work. My favourite place I’ve ever lived and I’d love to move back permanently when I retire.

Loved the big city feel, the metro is amazing (even though I’m the snobby type that doesn’t do public transport except in London), you get proper snow - not the occasional slush, amazing beach in Tynemouth, massive shopping centre in Gateshead (can’t remember the name), people who all seem to be passionate about football - as opposed to the apathy you get in the Medway towns...
 
I thought the teams nullified each other early on in the game, but once we scored the first we had a really good spell until the end of the half. Pringle definitely made a difference, we haven't seen crosses like that this season, and hopefully now we are, we'll be able to get players in the right position to get on the end of them.

Akinde had a decent home debut and showed a lot of what we can expect from him. I thought though his touch and control let him down a few times in the game when in a good position. Hopefully that's just some ring rust and with getting the minutes on the pitch, that will improve.
 
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