Gillingham (A) Saturday March 22nd, 3pm

Match Centre 24/25 Match Centre 22/23
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"The Kentishmen will … rise …
for they are … full of spirit"

(Shakespeare)

As we enter the “home straight” of this season with only 9 games to go, our lead at the top of League 2 currently stands at 3 points. The margin between ourselves and the play-off zone is a mere 6 points which illustrates our stuttering form and also the fact that we can’t rely on every other side to fail consistently (although one or two of them are seemingly doing their best!).

Gillingham, like ourselves, have been bought by owners from the other side of the pond - in their case it’s Brad Galinson, who has made his fortune on the real estate and management of apartments front in Florida. Unfortunately for him, the team hasn’t quite lived up to his expectations - The Gills are currently 19th in the table with 42 points, only 12 above Morecambe in the relegation fight. They look safe, but not impressive enough to even merit mid-table status. This is all the more strange compared to their start to the season - after 8 games they were top of the table with 19 points having only conceded 2 goals. But in October they lost all 5 of their League 2 games and their form since then is best described as “patchy”. Most recently…

February 22nd Carlisle United (A) Drew 0-0
February 25th Fleetwood Town (H) Lost 1-2
March 1st Morecambe (H) Won 1-0
March 4th Newport County (A) Lost 3-1
March 8th Bradford City (H) Won 1-0
March 15th Accrington Stanley (A) Drew 1-1

The Gills do appear to have a problem scoring, having only registered 31 goals in 36 games. However they do have a fairly tight defence having only shipped 39 goals (compared to our 43!).

Connections between the two clubs are surprisingly common and include Simeon Jackson, Howard Pritchard, Michael Flynn (as player), David Perpetuini, Darren Byfield, John Hodge, Tommy Watson, Emmanuel Osadebe, Simon Osborn, Remeao Hutton (Walsall academy), Fred Morris, Febian Brandy, Bertrand Bossu, Trevor Benjamin, Donervon Daniels, Scott Houghton, Franck Moussa and Steve Claridge.

Mat Sadler has one definite selection dilemma as Connor Barrett is suspended, although there are those that thought a break would be beneficial for his future performances. Having rotated his goalkeepers for our most recent game he could revert to Tommy Simkin if he is available. Jamille Matt looks to be firing on all cylinders, and there has been talk of George Hall making a welcome return to the squad. As always, wait and see…

Prediction? As one of our prominent contributors would no doubt confirm, Gillingham is not an easy place to go - but in the spirit of reaching out for promotion we should be looking at taking 3 points from this one, say a 1-2 away win with Jamie Jellis and Uncle Albert on the scoresheet?

UTS

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Away on international duty.

Hornby will continue with Barrett (George) on the bench.

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So, given suspensions, international callsup, treatment table, current form (?), what’s the thinking about the team for Gillingham ?
How’s about …

Hornby
McEntee Williams Allen
Adomah Stirk Comley Lakin Weir
Matt Amantchi

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Agree but i’d like to see the man u kid get 45 minutes.

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He’s on international call

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Reasonably solid looking 11, given those we have on internationals, suspended or injured, although i would have jellis in for comley and play stirk in the cdm role.

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Definitely Jellis for Comley

Maybe Asiimwe for Adomah

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What’s the stae of Harrisons injury. Is there a chance he could return?

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Yeah but adomah will be up front

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Jellis was going to be my impact sub !! Fired up after being left on the bench, he comes on after 70, running on pure adrenaline, to rescue the game for the Saddlers.

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Lipsuic for Stirk.
Need to strengthen the bench options in midfield.

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I can’t forget the 2004 disaster there. A win would have, as it turned out, rescued our Division One (Championship) season.
Gillingham was our chance. We were struggling for wins, but not playing badly. The Gills were, they’d lost five on the trot, were in real trouble and were there to be rolled over. Waiting to be, but for Colin Lee’s inexplicable selection that day, not least upsetting a settled team and dropping Jorge.
We lost 3-0. A result that in the end doomed us…and Lee. It was his last game.
History must not repeat itself.

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Awful day , I was there .

Would have been 7 or 8 without Wacka too .

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I think we win this one. Think being under strength might squeeze a bit more out of what we have.

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When he is one of the six away, come on if your going to keep up this inane waffle you’ve at least got to demonstrate some footballing knowledge otherwise we will all just think your a wally :joy:

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Lipsuic is on International duty

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Wasn’t Hall expected to be fit for the back end of this month? Any news on whether he has at least started training again?

BTW I think MS will go with his “trusted” midfield of several recent away games - Stirk, Comley and Jellis.

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I think Sads may have said mid-April in one if his interviews last week, not sure., but given he’s been out for some time and he was only just beginning to so something having come back from his previous injury, I wouldn’t bank on him making much of an impact.

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More chance of Putin giving Ukraine half of Russia as compensation in a peace deal, than Hall playing any significant role before end of season, it’s madness to think otherwise.

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He knew that

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