How Gillingham fans saw it from their forum

Nuttalls Mint Toes

Nuttalls Mint Toes

Well-known member
Jeez - who'd be a Gillingham fan if that made you happy!

Blackpool gave away a foul every four minutes on average. And they fouled cynically around the halfway line every time a breakaway looked on. Let's be honest Man City play like that and they break uop play too but no one comments because of the sublime moments they produce.

I thought that was a good display and fairly easy win today against a tidy but toothless Blackpool. Blackpool kept position well, but largely in safe areas for us and didn't do a lot in the final quarter, bar the last 10 when they pushed a few more forward and we sat back. I'd be frustrated if I were a Blackpool fan as they got into some good areas, but their default seemed to be to try to play an extra pass rather than get the key cross, shot or killer pass in.

In my book it was the most positive performance for a long time .Blackpool had almost all the meaningful possession. But we stole the game .Oliver had the reputation at the cobblers for creating chances and winning the ball .Graham has had better games this season but that is probably a good thing as this attack has more possibilities than it showed today.

I noticed it a lot last year where there are a lot of teams who try to pass the ball a lot but lack any real bite. Evans is smart enough not to get into that game and sets the team up properly to steal the ball back when the opposition get bored of passing it sideways.

We were comfortable. Blackpool played some nice stuff and had all the % but as others have said offered very little going forward. Graham, Oliver and Samuel showed some lovely link up play, especially in the first half but personally thought Graham was a little bit wasted on the left hand side though.
 
They had a game plan. It worked. Personally I thought they were shocking. Even City don't break up play that badly by falling over and time wasting as much - maybe they need more acting lessons or develop more of an Aguero scream when touched. Summed them up when the guy went off with a suspected serious ankle injury and when off the pitch he walked sprightly to the bench unaided - maybe their physio is Jesus?
They literally took it in turns to go down and it was blatant. Part of the game maybe but I wouldn't watch that. We were poor - we lost but against that lot you need to score first to stop that part of their game plan.
 
Nuttalls Mint Toes said:
I thought that was a good display and fairly easy win today against a tidy but toothless Blackpool. Blackpool kept position well, but largely in safe areas for us and didn't do a lot in the final quarter, bar the last 10 when they pushed a few more forward and we sat back. I'd be frustrated if I were a Blackpool fan as they got into some good areas, but their default seemed to be to try to play an extra pass rather than get the key cross, shot or killer pass in.
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This comment is wholly accurate in my view.

Gillingham will not have an easier game than that all season. We have a generation of fans who have been brought on stats and knock one out having 67 % possession and that makes you good to watch or a better team. It's utter bollocks.

Reminds me of last season when a whole section of fans cried like little bitches when Rotherham beat us, because they were bigger stronger and played the ref better than us. So what? You can either cry or get on with it. Tranmere did that once to us under mcmahon and we came out second half and went toe to toe and won 3 nil - this team needs to do the same as all scouts will have watched that and be drawing up the same game plan.

And just to add there will be at least 12 better teams than Gillingham this season I'd wager.
 
Evans is top drawer in league 1....men’s football
Critchers is top drawer in boys football .....
An easy win according to their fans
 
Blackpool gave away a foul every four minutes on average!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gillingham players fell down every time a blackpool player came near them and the ref obliged them with a free kick. He missed the pulling, shoving and ankle kicking of the gills players on Yates, CJ, anderson and Robson. there was one incident where Bez was going down the wing had pretty much passed the Gills player who was holding on to bez and took them both to ground, and the freekick was awarded against Bez.

No team should have to "play" the referee.

the incident at the end of the game where the player took about 5mins to limp off the pitch and as he crossed the touchline, started walking normally, that to me deserves a red card for the player, and the manager and the substitution not allowed. The one thing that could change a lot of this would be an independent timekeeper. Have a permitted amount of time for throw ins, fre, kicks, corners 20 thirty forty seconds or so - whatever and then the clock stops until the ball comes back into play.

another thing that bugs me is the goalkeepers holding onto the ball, the six second rule was bought in to stop timewasting with the four step rule, but refs never enforce it. alnwyck at pool used to do it all the time used to hold on to the ball for about 40 seconds every time he got it used to drive me nuts. the Gills keeper was at it all the time yesterday.

Gillingham won't have an easier game than that all season because i doubt they will find another referee all season who will be so obliging.
 
Costero Poderoso said:
Blackpool gave away a foul every four minutes on average!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gillingham players fell down every time a blackpool player came near them and the ref obliged them with a free kick. He missed the pulling, shoving and ankle kicking of the gills players on Yates, CJ, anderson and Robson. there was one incident where Bez was going down the wing had pretty much passed the Gills player who was holding on to bez and took them both to ground, and the freekick was awarded against Bez.

No team should have to "play" the referee.

the incident at the end of the game where the player took about 5mins to limp off the pitch and as he crossed the touchline, started walking normally, that to me deserves a red card for the player, and the manager and the substitution not allowed. The one thing that could change a lot of this would be an independent timekeeper. Have a permitted amount of time for throw ins, fre, kicks, corners 20 thirty forty seconds or so - whatever and then the clock stops until the ball comes back into play.

another thing that bugs me is the goalkeepers holding onto the ball, the six second rule was bought in to stop timewasting with the four step rule, but refs never enforce it. alnwyck at pool used to do it all the time used to hold on to the ball for about 40 seconds every time he got it used to drive me nuts. the Gills keeper was at it all the time yesterday.

Gillingham won't have an easier game than that all season because i doubt they will find another referee all season who will be so obliging.
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I'm glad you mentioned Alnwick for balance. The point is most teams use gamesmanship at times.

Last season we had tilt and Jordan Thompson who did exactly what the gills players did yesterday. In fact they were probably worse for going down but I cannot remember the crowd getting on their back too much to stop cheating.

I do agree with players leaving the field etc wasting time. A rule should come in where a player who needs the physio has 5 mins off the pitch or the physio administers attention whilst play carries on. Or something like that. Or an independent clock official.
 
The way we play we need more quality in key areas and need to be streetwise. Like others have said most teams will be able to deal with us no problem. You need a bit of both in league one, can't be tippy tappy all the time.
 
Ghosts of Electricity said:
I'm glad you mentioned Alnwick for balance. The point is most teams use gamesmanship at times.

Last season we had tilt and Jordan Thompson who did exactly what the gills players did yesterday. In fact they were probably worse for going down but I cannot remember the crowd getting on their back too much to stop cheating.

I do agree with players leaving the field etc wasting time. A rule should come in where a player who needs the physio has 5 mins off the pitch or the physio administers attention whilst play carries on. Or something like that. Or an independent clock official.
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jordan thompson used to drive me nuts, and tilt used to scare me with his falling over in that i thought refs would cotton on to what he was doing and not give free kicks he was claiming. thing is both players had ability to not have to do that. with thompson it worked a lot less all it would do was break up play for blackpool.
Gamesmanship is one thing but yesterday was something else in my opinion. there was a bit of a confrontation between the ref, the fourth official and evans and from that point the ref gave a lot more freekicks to blackpool, some of which i dot think were justified. either the ref realised he had been conned all game long or he was just pissed off at evans, but in both cases he probably shouldnt be given another game at this level.
 
Costero Poderoso said:
jordan thompson used to drive me nuts, and tilt used to scare me with his falling over in that i thought refs would cotton on to what he was doing and not give free kicks he was claiming. thing is both players had ability to not have to do that. with thompson it worked a lot less all it would do was break up play for blackpool.
Gamesmanship is one thing but yesterday was something else in my opinion. there was a bit of a confrontation between the ref, the fourth official and evans and from that point the ref gave a lot more freekicks to blackpool, some of which i dot think were justified. either the ref realised he had been conned all game long or he was just pissed off at evans, but in both cases he probably shouldnt be given another game at this level.
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I do agree with all your saying but for me it wasn't the reason we lost. We were just very poor.

They scored after a couple of minutes and said 'have the ball and break us down' and I don't think we had a chance to the 70th minute or so?
 
Ghosts of Electricity said:
I do agree with all your saying but for me it wasn't the reason we lost. We were just very poor.

They scored after a couple of minutes and said 'have the ball and break us down' and I don't think we had a chance to the 70th minute or so?
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dont disagree we were poor, i dont think we were as bad as some are making out though, but i think one of the reasons we were poor was the way the game was constantly being broken up by shitehouse tactics. Still think that this manager and this team will come good, i think the defence needs to improve, not sure if its new personnel or better training ground work. I'll raise this point at set pieces either attacking or defending we are woeful.
 
Costero Poderoso said:
dont disagree we were poor, i dont think we were as bad as some are making out though, but i think one of the reasons we were poor was the way the game was constantly being broken up by shitehouse tactics. Still think that this manager and this team will come good, i think the defence needs to improve, not sure if its new personnel or better training ground work. I'll raise this point at set pieces either attacking or defending we are woeful.
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Yep, it's a new team with a new manager. I think we have really talented players and if it clicks we will be nearer the top.
 
Ghosts of Electricity said:
This comment is wholly accurate in my view.

Gillingham will not have an easier game than that all season. We have a generation of fans who have been brought on stats and knock one out having 67 % possession and that makes you good to watch or a better team. It's utter bollocks.

Reminds me of last season when a whole section of fans cried like little bitches when Rotherham beat us, because they were bigger stronger and played the ref better than us. So what? You can either cry or get on with it. Tranmere did that once to us under mcmahon and we came out second half and went toe to toe and won 3 nil - this team needs to do the same as all scouts will have watched that and be drawing up the same game plan.

And just to add there will be at least 12 better teams than Gillingham this season I'd wager.
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Well said. This idea we’ve got some sort of pure footballing team is absolute baloney. Fannying around with 5 yard passes to each other in your own half is utterly pointless as in the final third we were bereft of creativity and we could have played all day and never scored. People having a pop at Steve Evans make me laugh as well he has an excellent track record and if he had the funding Critchley had would be bankers to go up. Massive difference between coaching and managing and I could imagine wanting to play for Evans.
I also get the impression there’s an element of fancy dannery about half our team. Think a few of them think they’re better than they actually are.
 
That was our worst performance by far this season, but I still have optimism. They are playing the right way and if they stick to those principles we will be fine. I must admit though that we seem to start very slowly. We give early goals away which put us under pressure before we actually start playing. Maybe they need to get out of the changing rooms a little earlier and have a more disciplined warm up
 
I don't want to watch teams "playing the ref". I don't want to watch teams timewasting, I dont want to watch teams taking turns to stay down to break up opposition, even in the last few minutes. That's why I loved Ollie's football, they'd go at teams for 90 minutes; didn't care who they were.
Steve Evans can grind results and abuse officials, opponents and his own team if he likes, but if you'd rather have him than Critchley, I firmly believe you've forgotten that first game you went to, that first move, that first goal... whatever it was that made you obsess over football and Blackpool.

I'm prepared to give this Blackpool team a heck of a long time to work out how to thrash these cloggers we're playing against, if only for the sake of the 11 year old me, watching the likes of Andy Garner and Trevor Sinclair who understood what the point of footy was!

UTMP
 
hills98 said:
I don't want to watch teams "playing the ref". I don't want to watch teams timewasting, I dont want to watch teams taking turns to stay down to break up opposition, even in the last few minutes. That's why I loved Ollie's football, they'd go at teams for 90 minutes; didn't care who they were.
Steve Evans can grind results and abuse officials, opponents and his own team if he likes, but if you'd rather have him than Critchley, I firmly believe you've forgotten that first game you went to, that first move, that first goal... whatever it was that made you obsess over football and Blackpool.

I'm prepared to give this Blackpool team a heck of a long time to work out how to thrash these cloggers we're playing against, if only for the sake of the 11 year old me, watching the likes of Andy Garner and Trevor Sinclair who understood what the point of footy was!

UTMP
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We got some results under Grayson but it wasn't football to stir the blood. If you want functional football stick to Gillinghams I follow channel. Not for me.
 
I would have Critchley over Evans as manager every time. Evans may get some results, but when you have to deploy the antics they did (and let's be honest, they did it to the extreme - it took that lad minutes to walk off the pitch it was embarrassing), then no thanks. Some may be happy with that, but I wouldn't be. It's awful football and will only take you so far. Perfect if you're doing it on a budget.
We have greater ambitions than Gillingham, and I'd wager with anyone that we'll be finishing in a better position than them consistently over the next few years because of the approach we've adopted, in both playing philosophy and recruitment.
We are a team that is a bit unfamiliar, a bit inexperienced and a bit naive. We aren't sh1t.
 
We run both wings well but never cross a ball in. It goes inside, then backwards. It's no surprise at all Yates hasn't scored.
 
BFC_53 said:
I would have Critchley over Evans as manager every time. Evans may get some results, but when you have to deploy the antics they did (and let's be honest, they did it to the extreme - it took that lad minutes to walk off the pitch it was embarrassing), then no thanks. Some may be happy with that, but I wouldn't be. It's awful football and will only take you so far. Perfect if you're doing it on a budget.
We have greater ambitions than Gillingham, and I'd wager with anyone that we'll be finishing in a better position than them consistently over the next few years because of the approach we've adopted, in both playing philosophy and recruitment.
We are a team that is a bit unfamiliar, a bit inexperienced and a bit naive. We aren't sh1t.
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Great post. If we are using Evans and Gillingham's tactics as a benchmark for improvement then I am out. With a couple of days since the game, my thoughts are: It's a new team, new manager and NC will have learnt plenty from that game. Obviously there needs to be improvement in several departments and I'll reserve judgment until after the Xmas / NY period. SS and NC and the wider team are building a side here and I for one remain convinced it'll come good.
 
It kind of reminds me of us beating Oxford last season. A functional, limited side overcoming a possession side that was clearly a better footballing team but needed some improvements.
 
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