Fan Blog, Headley's Blog
Mischievous headlines have done Stimson no favours
Published by Simon Head on January 20, 2010
Just one week after Derby skipper Robbie Savage took a BBC Radio Derby reporter to the cleaners over the station’s lack of support for the team, the website of the Kent Messenger Group, Kent Online, appears to have put Gillingham manager Mark Stimson in an even more awkward position with the club’s fans.
Let’s get things clear. Gillingham’s away form has been little short of disgraceful and last night’s defeat to Accrington Stanley is, to a number of Gills fans, the last straw. As a result, the calls for Stimson’s head are beginning to be heard (or read) across the various Gillingham fan forums online.
But one of the major points being made by fans following the Accrington defeat relates directly to what appears to be a rather mischievous headline published by the Kent Online website yesterday morning.
The story explains how Stimson believed his side should have the ability and quality to go defeat Accrington. It was titled, “Stimson: Defeat will be inexcusable”.
I say the headline was rather mischievous because,if you read the article and pay particular attention to the quotes contained within the article itself, it seems at no point in the article did Stimson actually say that defeat would be “inexcusable”.
If you click on the aforementioned headline from the NewsNow website today, the story shows a slightly different headline.
“Gillingham manager Mark Stimson says players have no excuses if they lose to Accrington in FA Cup”
That headline was live yesterday afternoon when I first saw the story but, again, the printed quotes from the Gills manager said nothing of the sort.
In fact the opening paragraph says, “Gillingham boss Mark Stimson knows his players will have no excuses if they fail to make it to the fourth round of the FA Cup on Tuesday night.”
That’s quite different from the manager saying it, isn’t it? That’s an assumption, not a quote.
If Stimson did say that defeat would be inexcusable, or that the players would have no excuses if they lost, then why not include the quotes in the article? One can only assume he never actually said it.
It’s possible the article was written in all innocence, but the apparently inaccurate headlines have done Stimson few favours with the Gills fans.
I’m sure the Gills boss won’t be “doing a Robbie Savage” anytime soon, but I doubt he’ll be too impressed with the local paper putting words in his mouth. Especially when those words come back to bite him in the backside hours later.
After all, with the way his team are performing away from home, he’s got enough on his plate as it is.
Simon Head
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