Dennehy impressed while on loan from Cardiff last season and was earmarked as a key signing by new manager Andy Hessenthaler, who was impressed with the Irishman’s performances at centre half for the Gills in 09-10.

But after lengthy negotiations with the player and his representative, it appears that Dennehy has changed his mind, with the player looking set to join former Gills manager Mark Stimson at Barnet.

The appointment was announced on Tuesday, with Barnet chairman Tony Kleanthous saying: “We went through a very vigorous selection process and have chosen Mark mainly because of his experience in the game and at our level and also because of his over-riding enthusiasm for good football.

“He has worked with Paul Fairclough on the England C scene and Michael Stone, the new first team coach.

“Because of all the investment we need to push for promotion next season”.

Stimson joins the Bees after losing his job at Gillingham after his second relegation in three seasons with the Kent club, but the last time he managed in League Two he earned promotion for the Gills after steering the side into the playoffs.

In a statement on the Barnet official website, stimson promised the Barnet fans an entertaining style of football.

“I enjoy an attacking style of football. I try to win games and to entertain. That’s what the fans like to get them off their seats”.

We reported live from Priestfield as the Gills crashed to one of their most disappointing defeats of the season.

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NEXT SHOW: WYCOMBE WANDERERS (A) & DAGENHAM & REDBRIDGE (H)

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Last week’s fine performance at Brentford was firmly despatched to the history folder as the home side produced a display that was polar opposites of their previous outing.

There was much scratching of heads as the team showed a couple of changes from the starting line up at Griffin Park. Why change it after a good performance when it was left to the same players to fix it after a bad day at Grimsby? Of course, the majority of supporters are not privy to what has gone on in training during the week, who has picked up injuries or illnesses and Mark Stimson was quick to defend his decisions on Radio Kent with the explanation that Adam Miller had only trained for half-an-hour this week, but it is common knowledge that he has been playing with a hernia for weeks, so why choose today to rest him? For weeks Stimson bemoaned the lack of a fully fit Mark McCammon, now he has him and his partnership with Simeon Jackson beginning to show signs of coming together, he drops him to the bench. We can only ask why and when there is a reaction from the disappointed support, Stimson reacts as if to say “what the hell do you lot know”?

Another excuse was made for the totally baffling withdrawal of Andy Barcham, once again it was injury, but the player himself looked less than pleased to be substituted, especially by a centre half being thrown forward. When Barcham was promptly named man of the match, you had to laugh because the alternatives were tears or rage.

I’ve largely supported Mark Stimson when sections of the crowd have not, but today’s horror show can be partly laid at his door and his team selection. Don’t come on the radio and have a go at supporters, take a hard look at your own decisions, because today they did not stack up.

The game was scrappy from the outset on a drying pitch that was not helpful. Barnet made the early running as Gillingham wasted possession with careless abandon. The veteran Paul Furlong gave the home side a warning shot across the bows as he shot wide in the 13th minute before heading home ten minutes later. Debutee Josh Wright gave the ball away; John Nutter failed to get close to John O’Flynn who crossed for Furlong to score with ease. If this was the wake-up call required, Gillingham failed to answer and were lucky not to go in further behind as a Nicky Deverdics strike cleared the bar.

With news from elsewhere encouraging at half-time, surely Gillingham would improve significantly after the break, sadly the answer was an emphatic no. In the 50th minute a shot from Nutter, comfortably saved by Jake Cole, was the first on target for the Gills, before Mark Bentley clumsily brought Furlong down in the box with the resultant penalty converted by O’Flynn to double the deficit.

McCammon was introduced at the expense of Dennis Oli and although he enlivened the flagging home side he also wasted the best chance when he shot wide following good work from Barcham. Five minutes injury time would normally be seen as a lifeline in these circumstances, but today it was almost sadistic persecution of those wearing the blue and white colours.

I like many others must learn a lesson from today. If I was any good at predicting the results of football matches, I would have taken a bucket-load of cash from the bookies every Saturday, I haven’t, so give the Predictor the elbow.

Did we take the points for granted?

I ask this because if you looked at our run-in before this weekend’s match, Barnet were clearly one of the weakest sides left to face. Indeed, most fans came to Priestfield expecting nothing less than a routine home win. Looking at the players’ application and commitment today, you could be forgiven for thinking they thought they could just turn up and win the match. You’ve got to earn the right to play in matches like this, and almost every Gills player today failed to do themselves justice.

What happened to the passing?

Gillingham’s second half showing at Brentford last week was arguably the best 45 minutes of football we’ve played under Stimson. But today, we barely strung three passes together for the whole game. Long ball after long ball was hoofed forward and the ball spent more time in the air than it did at the feet of a Gills player today. This would have pleased Barnet, whose side was better suited to dealing with the long high ball. Had we played any sort of decent football, we would have had a much better chance of scoring. Instead we barely mustered a shot on target all game.

Did Mark Stimson actually know what he was doing after all?

Taking off your best attacker when you’re chasing the game isn’t what most fans would consider a positive move, but that’s what Mark Stimson did when he withdrew Andy Barcham and replaced him with Garry Richards deep into the second half. The crowd weren’t impressed, booing the decision and singing, “You don’t know what you’re doing” in the direction of Stimson. Someone in Block B of the Medway Stand later asked Barcham if he had a knock, and the player said yes, but in truth he still looked far more mobile than Richards who, with all the best will in the world, is not a good attacking player. Barcham certainly wasn’t so injured he couldn’t continue, so taking him off the field when he was our only effective attacker looked like the move of a manager who had given up on the points and was saving one of his players from picking up a worse injury. So while the decision was a baffling one at the time, it’s more than likely Stimson knew exactly what he was doing because he, just like the rest of us inside Priestfield, could almost certainly see that we weren’t going to get anything from the game. We were that poor.

Yet again, it could have been a lot worse

Despite our dreadful performance on the pitch, Gillingham haven’t lost too much ground on the sides around them, thanks to other sides dropping points. Rochdale were thrashed at Bournemouth, Brentford drew at Bradford, and Bury and Shrewsbury both also drew. By losing we lost at least a point to our rivals, but we remain one win off second place. The most frustrating thing is if we had put in even a half-decent performance today, we would be sitting in the promotion places right now. It was a massive opportunity blown.

If we keep our nerve, we should be OK for a playoff place

While an automatic promotion place is obviously the aim, the other factor to keep an eye on is the gap between ourselves and eighth place. With five games to go, we’re five points clear of eighth. If we can keep things tight and pick up points, we should be able to consolidate our position in the top seven. To do that, of course, we’ll have to play a LOT better than we did today. Our remaining games are all much tougher on paper than the one we had today and if we play like that, we won’t pick up another point this season. More performances like the one at Brentford are needed from here on in.

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Leading the team of match officials will be Kevin Friend. The Leicestershire based referee has officiated the Gills on three previous occasions, however Saturday will mark his debut at Priestfield.

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Matchday Chat is available exclusively for members of the Gills365 Forums, and is open from 3.00pm on Saturday December 13th.

HERE’S HOW TO GET STARTED

Just click on Forums & Matchday Chat on the navbar above and sign in to the forums as usual. You’ll see a link to Matchday Chat on the left hand side of the screen. Click that and you’ll enter our exclusive live chatroom.

You can easily see who else is online by checking out the panel on the right of the screen – and joining in is as easy as typing your messages and comments in the thin box just beneath the main display.

All the Gills365 House Rules apply, so if you haven’t already, make sure you check those out on our Site Admin Q&A board before you get started.

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