Gillingham v Blackpool Official Matchday Thread 26.09.20

We need to get Garbutt into the team asap and hand him the armband. We need someone who can motivate, has quality and experience.
 
Spider29 said:
Evans out thought us....
Gillingham out fought us.....
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hes a cynical manager, who does everything he can to spoil the game, fortunatley for him today he caught us having an off day with a ref who was utter shi7. we got three bookings today, Robsons was justified, but he had spent the whole game being pushed pulled and kicked and being constantly penalised. The "foul" the epki got boked for the gills player could have got a 10 on the interpretative dance part of the gymnastics olympics, all he needed was the ribbons being twizzed behind him
 
I never believed for one minute we would walk this league. Honestly I thought we would be stronger than last year. We do play some nice football at times but....
Defence is traumatic - Sunday league at times.
Gillingham were one dimensional and poor - the only thing they did consistently was take turns in falling over - an old Evans trick. Nevertheless they did us and fairly comfortably.
I was very disappointed in several of our players - they were poor. Cannot think of one player today who played well today.
Seen way to many teams play good football and end up in and around the relegation zone.
Crichley's face said it all at the final whistle.
 
Work in progress but these players and Critchley need to learn fast - that was embarrassing being out thought by Gillingham. To many players just didn't click today. We need to work at set pieces and defending this week and being switched on from the start of both halves. Critchley needs to find a decent CH this week with experience who can come in as captain. Disappointing to have so much possession but yet again do nothing with it - two away games on the bounce.
 
Well it could have been worse being there and sitting in an open stand in a gale force wind, a disappointing performance, gave the ball away far too often..
 
well that was awful poor defending sloppy passing and control hard to recall an effective pass in the game neat and tidy in nothing areas yates had nil service had to keep coming deep just to be involved at all i cant think of a good performance today and ive enjoyed most games so far played into there tactics of throwing themselves to the ground were far to green and fragile we need to learn quick.
 
Thoughts on today.

1. Start with positives. Our ball retention is so much better than last year, we're not panicking in possession.
2. Robson continues to impress, and relates to point 1. Always moving into space and composed.
3. Now the negatives (there are many...). The defence is woeful. If you gift goals in the first 5 mins in every match, you won't be able to take advantage of our pace. Our inability to bring in an experienced centre half this summer is coming back to bite us already.
4. I've already seen the knives out for Turton. Sorry but he was no better or worse than anyone else today. For example, aren't Ward and Anderson supposed to create chances and give us an attacking threat? What did either do?
5. Set pieces. God they are awful. Our corners offer no threat whatsoever and that needs to change, way too comfortable for Gillingham to defend.
6. Experience. We are seeing what happens when you don't really have any old heads on the pitch. We aren't clever enough to get wise to a team like gillinghams antics.
7. Gillingham. I realise this is going to look like sour grapes, but what a horrible team, with spoiling tactics from minute 3. If they go behind in matches, they'll struggle because their entire game plan rests on them defending a lead.

Overall it was poor stuff, but I hope we stick to our principles. There is no need to panic, but we absolutely have to stop conceding early goals and get a grip on defending set pieces.
 
LA1 Seasider said:
To those of you who only listened to the BBC Lancs commentary then you would probably think we were complete garbage (BBC Lancs commentators are clueless and at times I though they were watching a different game). Well we weren't complete garbage, we were just mostly garbage. For some reason today we just couldn't find a final ball - plenty of possession and plenty of strings of passes - but all in areas which had zero threat. Gillingham managed to completely nullify the threat of CJ and Lubala didn't really look like he fancied it today. The Midfield misplaced passes and passed behind the overlapping man time after time and the only player I thought had a good game was Jerry Yates - unfortunately the vast majority of chances we created were created by him chasing the ball down and winning it back, as such he wasn't able to be on the end of the balls which ultimately resulted. Turton probably had the majority of the ball of any Blackpool player today and whilst he didn't do a great deal wrong, he poses almost no threat with it as he's just not an attacking player. I think Mitchell was let down by Lubala not being at the races - as such was occupied defending and had no options when he did have the ball. Robson and Anderson gave the ball away too frequently and struggled to make any second balls which seemed a bit strange for them as usually they're very sharp. Ward was poor and didn't really get involved in the game - he ended up playing far too deep so his attacking traits were wasted and he doesn't put himself about enough to be any real use in that position. The less said about Nottingham and Epiketeta today the better. Nottingham made 2 awful mistakes but still looked more solid than Marvin in my opinion. Maxwell didn't have a lot to do tbh and wasn't really at fault for either goal.

Steve Evans masterclass ? Critch showing a degree of naivety ? Whatever it was, an improved performance is required and a rocket up the arse before kick-off is clearly needed next week.
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The possession bit is a tad misleading. Time and time again we moved the ball across midfield/back as they stood off, then lumped the ball diagonally forward to, err, their player. Silly overhit passes and ** stupidly bad set plays.

Whether that is in part tactics or poor play(ers) I couldn't say conclusively.

Need a leader on the pitch, they looked like lost lambs at times.
 
NewburyOne said:
Be honest, the football is poor. Critchley isn't exactly convincing me. If we don't learn about starting slowly or how to control teams like Gillingham we can forget any kind of success. I know things take time but that was a million miles away from hope.
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There is no way you can say the football is poor, we were off today and teh team is struggling in the last third, after the turgid muck we have been served up under Grayson and mcdonut and all the elasticating what we had today even on an off day was still better than most of Graysons wins. at least we can see a team that wants to play football. It will come right.
 
JJpool said:
What do you mean, I've said Nottingham is crap before, but who do we replace him with, same with ekpotato.

They don't inspire confidence.
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lots of us have been concerned with our defence. Still we must give this new squad time to gel. Disappointing performance in defence & the final third.
 
Maxwell not big enough. A bigger keeper would have tipped the first one over the bar instead of onto it and he should have saved the second one. We have a soft centre. New keeper and two centre halves needed.
 
fcblackpool said:
The possession bit is a tad misleading. Time and time again we moved the ball across midfield/back as they stood off, then lumped the ball diagonally forward to, err, their player. Silly overhit passes and ** stupidly bad set plays.

Whether that is in part tactics or poor play(ers) I couldn't say conclusively.

Need a leader on the pitch, they looked like lost lambs at times.
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I completely agree with you...tbh I thought my post said as much. Our set pieces are atrocious. Even our bloody throw ins are often completely wasted. I like Ethan Robson as a defensive midfielder, scrapping and winning the ball and playing nice little passes - but on the showings so far he is no set piece specialist. Hopefully Garbutt, Kai Kai and Madine will take over - or maybe even Virtue or Sarkic when they make it onto the pitch
 
BFCJonny said:
Maxwell not big enough. A bigger keeper would have tipped the first one over the bar instead of onto it and he should have saved the second one. We have a soft centre. New keeper and two centre halves needed.
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Completely Disagree. The flick on from that corner would have caught 99% of GK's out and we're not in the position to sign the Jan Oblak's of this world. As for the second goal it was a very tidy finish from a tight angle. Maxwell gives us everything we need and for this level and for the style of play we're going for we are VERY lucky to have him. He's possibly the best GK in this league, definitely the best sweeper keeper and there's absolutely no way we could replace him with anyone better.
 
BFCJonny said:
Maxwell not big enough. A bigger keeper would have tipped the first one over the bar instead of onto it and he should have saved the second one. We have a soft centre. New keeper and two centre halves needed.
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Not even a good wind up...Maxwell was the only player who didnt do much wrong today and is as good as anyone in the division
 
LA1 Seasider said:
I completely agree with you...tbh I thought my post said as much. Our set pieces are atrocious. Even our bloody throw ins are often completely wasted. I like Ethan Robson as a defensive midfielder, scrapping and winning the ball and playing nice little passes - but on the showings so far he is no set piece specialist. Hopefully Garbutt, Kai Kai and Madine will take over - or maybe even Virtue or Sarkic when they make it onto the pitch
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Sorry, didn't make myself clear. The possession bit was agreeing with you, it's when others misuse the stats and expect 70/30 to lead to a 7-3 win, because in truth they are so misleading that they shouldn't even be shown.
 
TANGERINETOWERPOWER said:
Not even a good wind up...Maxwell was the only player who didnt do much wrong today and is as good as anyone in the division
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i dont think he did much wrong but im not sure he should have been beaten by the second goal but in his defence he was badly let down by the defence, and i that applys as much to midfielders not getting back in support. He is a very good goalkeepers, but as is always the case keepers make mistakes usually means goals conceded.
 
BFCJonny said:
Maxwell not big enough. A bigger keeper would have tipped the first one over the bar instead of onto it and he should have saved the second one. We have a soft centre. New keeper and two centre halves needed.
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Unfortunately, I agree with you - not unfortunately about the CBs, they're a given - but Maxwell would be bang on if he had an extra two inches.
 
fcblackpool said:
Sorry, didn't make myself clear. The possession bit was agreeing with you, it's when others misuse the stats and expect 70/30 to lead to a 7-3 win, because in truth they are so misleading that they shouldn't even be shown.
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Most interesting would be our pass completion rate - particularly those in the final third - as I expect that would be very low today. It's all well and good having 65/70% possession but if that's all on the half way line then it's useless. Gilingham would have been very comfortable with us controlling the ball today - we looked so sloppy in the final third it was unreal. No actual threat until the 80th minute unfortunately.
 
Costero Poderoso said:
First half, took us a while to get started, stupid goal to concede, but bearing in mind the way the ref was blowing up all afternoon probably shouldnt have been given. Last quarter nothing coming off, a lot of misplace and overhit passes. Second half we came out too relaxed the goal was really bad, from the camera position there wasnt anyone chasing back, and there was no way he should have scored from where he was. Gillingham then just spent the whole game falling over and wasting time. Should have been at least 12 minutes extra time. The ref really was the shi77est ive seen for a long time. Not a good performance Cj was shackled, mostly by being fouled every time he was on the ball, keshi seemed off the pace a bit today, ward was busy but ineffective, Robson the same. Yates worked hard without any real threat. id just say bad day oat the office, NC will be disapointed i think. learn from it and move on to next saturday. Kaikai looked sharp when he came on, Husband got caught out three or four times when he was bought on, he always makes me nervous.

I would give Yates a rest next week, maybe play with CJ down the middle with Kaikai and Bez.
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Actually thought our best period was when Yates and Madine were on
 
BFC_53 said:
Thoughts on today.

1. Start with positives. Our ball retention is so much better than last year, we're not panicking in possession.
2. Robson continues to impress, and relates to point 1. Always moving into space and composed.
3. Now the negatives (there are many...). The defence is woeful. If you gift goals in the first 5 mins in every match, you won't be able to take advantage of our pace. Our inability to bring in an experienced centre half this summer is coming back to bite us already.
4. I've already seen the knives out for Turton. Sorry but he was no better or worse than anyone else today. For example, aren't Ward and Anderson supposed to create chances and give us an attacking threat? What did either do?
5. Set pieces. God they are awful. Our corners offer no threat whatsoever and that needs to change, way too comfortable for Gillingham to defend.
6. Experience. We are seeing what happens when you don't really have any old heads on the pitch. We aren't clever enough to get wise to a team like gillinghams antics.
7. Gillingham. I realise this is going to look like sour grapes, but what a horrible team, with spoiling tactics from minute 3. If they go behind in matches, they'll struggle because their entire game plan rests on them defending a lead.

Overall it was poor stuff, but I hope we stick to our principles. There is no need to panic, but we absolutely have to stop conceding early goals and get a grip on defending set pieces.
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A well considered post, as usual. On Turton, I thought his crossing was more accurate and better paced than Maxwell's. Otherwise - and I am becoming a broken record on this - Kemp would be my right wing starter. He has more game awareness than Maxwell and his crosses are far more subtle.
 
tangysider said:
Actually thought our best period was when Yates and Madine were on
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we had more chances and probably our best chances when they were both on along with Kaikai but we looked a bit disjointed, and although Anderson didnt look at his best today we still missed him when he came off.
 
Looking at some of the score predictions for today’s game I think a good few will still be in shock after that.
Let’s be honest Critchley hasn’t built a promotion challenging team yet far from it, early days yes but never the less a very disappointing lacklustre performance this afternoon which clearly tells us players are still needed in certain positions.
 
Let me attempt to lighten the gloom.
In 2006/07 (when we were promoted and ended the season as the best team in the league), we not only lost our first three games but our performance at home to Rotherham ( second or third game) was atrocious. We didn't hit our stride until the 11th game against Carlisle and then I think we drew (Edit: we lost).
Stay calm people, it will come.
PS. We need better centre backs.
 
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The away commentators were quite complimentary about our potential if not the actual performance.

That’s all very well, but can we have some jam next weekend please. Thank you.
 
Costero Poderoso said:
There is no way you can say the football is poor, we were off today and teh team is struggling in the last third, after the turgid muck we have been served up under Grayson and mcdonut and all the elasticating what we had today even on an off day was still better than most of Graysons wins. at least we can see a team that wants to play football. It will come right.
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It may come right, today was awful, no-one can say otherwise. I've no issue with playing the right way but it has to lead to results. That's 1 win in 5 league games for Critchley, against bang average sides (Fleetwood, Tranmere, Plymouth, Swindon and Gillingham).
 
EagleDay said:
Not so different to a number of others we have seen. I'm more aggrieved by the bad sportsmanship of other teams than poor refs.
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How I could have stopped myself from belting one of their cheats I don't know.
Then again, we gave them the opportunity to do it big time.
 
First game i have watched this season.
Most will already have been covered.
Played some decent stuff lacked cutting edge in the final 3rd.
Out muscled at times by a physically strong & Big Gillingham side.

Like what NC is trying to achieve & with patience it will hopefully come to fruition.
Very much a work in progress but lets stick with his project and see where it takes us.
 
Yup we lost - depressing.
As a football match that I paid to watch - bloody awful.
The only memory I will have of that dire game was the soul destroying way Gillingham literally took turns in falling over and wasting time. So stage managed that they should as a club be embarrassed. It was that bad.
 
I’m not going to let this result spoil my weekend.
I already know the defence are crap and we’re toothless up front.
I know we are going to face teams like this more often than not in LG1. Sort the defence out as a priority - and by that I mean new players, not on the training pitch for it all to go out the window in the first 4 minutes.
Guarantee the starting 11 will be changed next match. Now let’s see how quickly the blatant problem areas are resolved before it derails our season. In that respect today could be a good result - the sticking plaster needs replacing with a permanent fix.
 
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