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Your Verdict: Gills 0-0 Stockport
Published by Simon Head on November 30, 2008
Gillingham drew 0-0 with Stockport in their FA Cup Second Round fixture this weekend and we asked Gills365′s members for their opinions on the match. Here are their opinions on the game…
“Very good all round performance from the Gills today. Everyone put in a strong shift although scoring opportunities were few and far between.
“The much maligned Adam Miller had a very good first half.
“It was an enjoyable game to watch, spoilt in part, by the appalling performances of the referee and his Medway Stand assistant.
“Gills were denied a goalscoring opportunity when Jackson was blatantly fouled in the first half. However the referee bottled the decision and asked his assistant who shook his head. As a result Stockport continued with eleven players.
“Between the pair of them, their less than consistent, and less than even handed application of the Laws of the Game throughout the match greatly hindered the Gills in their attempt to reach the third round of the FA Cup.”
Grumpy
“First of all I must say credit to both sides for a good match in terrible conditions.
“I was very impressed with Stockport early on. They looked threatening coming forward and I thought our back four done very well indeed.
“As the game progressed we looked comfortable, I was just a little disappointed that we didn’t seem to support Jackson that often.
“To summarize, I was pleased with the performance and we must remember that we were playing a strong team from the league above. I can’t help but think that we could have been a little more adventerous at home given our tendancy to collapse away from home. Anyway, we’re in the hat for round three and you never know…”
gangle
“I thought it was a proper good old fashioned cup tie, the fans were up for it with some great vocal support and much of the game was end to end even if there were not too many clear cut chances.
“Its with mixed feelings that I will watch the draw for the third round as the odds are against us winning the replay.
“However before the game all I said was that I wanted a 100% from the players and the fans. Well I got that so I for one went home happy enough.”
markinkent
“I thought we played as well as we ever had under Stimson.It could have gone either way,but the ref bottled it when Jackson was hauled down as he was getting away from the last defender,because it was clearly a professional foul.
“The worry is,that we played as well as we can,but didn’t win,and now we’ve got to play them away,and I doubt with our away record we will do anything up there.”
vinney
“The Gills began the game brightly and were more than a match for Stockport in the opening half. Miller looked in determined mood, chasing players down and harrying the opposition into making mistakes. His attitude seemed to inspire the rest of the team, and there was a lot of threat coming from the Gills right hand side. The end product wasn’t there though.
Simeon Jackson looked a little off the pace on occasion, and too often the final ball was played into the box through the air, giving diminutive Jackson and Barcham little chance against Stockport’s giant defenders. When called upon, the defence and keeper looked very solid, and the opening half ended with a feeling of optimism amongst the crowd.
“The second half was a far scrappier affair, and almost from the outset, Stockport looked a better side. The Stockport manager had obviously taken on board their first half problems and made two changes which altered the match completely.
“Stockport looked far more threatening, and the Gills were lucky that Gleeson lacked a little more composure when he had a golden chance five minutes into the second half.
“For long periods of the second half, the Gills were unable to keep the ball out of their end of the pitch, with Stockport heaping more and more pressure on them, and on more the one occasion, the defending started to look a little last ditch. The trouble was, the forwards couldn’t hold up the ball long enough for the midfield to link up with them, and the ball ended up back down the Gillingham end again.
“Stimson made a couple of sensible substitutions, with Miller coming off, having ran his legs off, and also having started to put in a couple of rash challenges. Mulligan, as ever, chased down every ball, and this gave the Gills a little more chance of getting a run at the Stockport goal.
“McCammon’s run out was short lived, with the stiker limping off shortly after arriving on the pitch, but the idea was sound. A larger target man was what the situation screamed out for, so at least Stimson was thinking along the right lines.
“All in all, Gills deserved the draw. Hopefully the third round draw will offer up a tasty tie with a Premiership club and spur the team on to win the replay.”
Paul Clement
“I wasn’t able to attend Tuesday’s game so can’t make any comparisons but I thought the effort, determination and team work today were second to none.
“I think playing Jackson on his own up front with insufficient support was never going to work and he was shunted and marked out of the game to some degree. Fuller, Richards and King all played blinders in my opinion. I feel Nutter has not got enough consistency at present and was a bit of a let down with free kicks especially that one near the end! Mulligan was another disappointment (and I’m a fan of his). Did some chasing down but didn’t seem to get stuck in like he normally does. Miller played well and was really putting himself about. Jarrett got plenty of good quality crosses in.
“If we played like this all season we would really get somewhere. Anyway it was a high energy entertaining 0-0 and even Gany Junior (who is harder to please than me) said it was the best nil-nil he had ever seen. Great atmosphere as well for the size of the crowd.
“My only fear is that Stockport may try and shut down our wing play in the replay which will probably snooker us completely.”
Gany
“I thought it was excellent with both sides trying to play football, and Stockport looked a far better side in the 2nd half when they switched to 4-5-1. For a tall side they played the ball on the ground a lot more than I expected them to.
“I also thought we played some of our best football so far and we would have won had Mark Bentley scored from the best two chances of the game.
“Thought Richards was far better defender than King today, who missed a lot of aerial challenges and also got the wrong side of the player he was marking on several occasions. Couldn’t believe he was named Man of the Match! My man of the match was Curtis Weston and I also thought Miller was excellent.”
symongills2
“We were the better team in the 1st halve and could have been a goal up, Barcham and Jarrett were both getting through and getting in crosses.
“Stockport made 2 substitutions at half time and changed to a 4 5 1 formation so that they could cancel out our wingers, good tactical awareness on the part of their manager.
“We can win the replay but only if we have the same ability to spot weakness and change our system to respond.”
baronnight
“A reasonable result against a side that,in my opinion, were no better than Rochdale on Tuesday. Both sides could and should have scored with a little more composure in front of goal.
“I was a little concerned as to our ambition when we started with Jackson & Miller as the front men but it worked well in the first half although I thought Jackson was not at his best.
“The 2 central midfielders were good but Jarrett was back to his frustrating mode and Barcham worked tirelessly but to little real effect in the final third. The defensive 5 produced a fine display despite 1 or 2 visibly tiring in the last 10 mins.
“The substitutions had little or no real effect except that we did manage to win some of the long hopeful balls that were pumped forward, If that is the best that Stockport can offer then we still have a reasonable chance in the replay.”
OldBanker
Simon Head
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