Latest / Blood, Sweat & Gills / Something to build on? | Fleetwood Town 0-0 Gillingham
Transcript
- Simon Head: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Blood Sweat and Gills. Simon Head from Gills365, Matt from Gills in the Blood TV. It's a weekly thing now. Every Monday after a Gills game, we will be here to unpack whatever the hell happened at the weekend. And I think it's a cause for some celebration, all right? Matt, we're on the board. We've got a point. We're off and running in League One. All right, very few trees were pulled up in the greater Fleetwood area. But, you know, something to build on, right? Yeah, you might get moaned out by a few for saying celebrating a Neil Neal draw, but I get what you mean. Yeah, there was certainly positives again. And yeah, the main thing for me was that we're up and running and we've got a point on the board. The clean sheet is a big plus for me because of the way we imploded seven days previously. Injury curse strikes again, unfortunately it looks like. But yeah, all in all, considering the players that were missing, the player that we lost midway through the second period and the players that we had to call on, which were essentially four youth teamers and three very young pros in Cameron Antwine, Sheldon Kendall and Colin McManus. Yeah, all in all a good afternoon's work. Yeah. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king, right? So if, if, you know, we had no points, had nothing coming for us at the start of the week, we've got a point. And what I would say is just like, okay, yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't spectacular. I've watched the match back since. And the thing that struck me was we just just seemed a bit more, a bit more resolute in defence. You know, we, we, we minded our P's and Q's a little bit more. We took, we took no chances back there. We made sure we got the ball clear when we needed to. There are a couple of chances here and there, was a, you know, there was a late header that landed on the roof of our net, but really, I think it was, was there a header that hit the outside of the post as well? But that was about it. They weren't exactly peppering the goal, were they? So I would take that as a positive, especially somewhere like Fleetwood, which is a long, long away trip to do difficult play. I know it's a stereotype, but it is a tough place to go play a game of football. And I thought we held up a reasonable display, especially given all the question marks that were sort of levelled at us after the first game. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, I can't get away from that. That sounds boring. I sound like I'm repeating myself, but after the way we collapsed the week before, having been decent enough for 82 minutes. I know we've spoken about this on last week's show, of course, yeah, but to go up there against a side that's got no Liam Gordon, no Armani Little, who are both probably going to be starters when fit, regardless of our opinions on either. Obviously it's difficult to gauge an opinion on Liam. He's only been here for a couple of months, but regardless of what you think about Armani Little, he seems to be fancied by Gareth Ainsworth. So chances are he's going to start games when he's fit and available. So yeah, and then you're bringing in Logan Dobbs making his first EFL start, who to be fair was absolutely fine last weekend. He wasn't a reason why we imploded in the last period of the game. Biggest thing for me, Andy Smith learned from what he'd done wrong last week. Probably had a slightly slow start. was a couple of times I thought he was ball watching again, but he got better as the game went on. But the biggest thing was Omar Beckles putting a 90 minute performance. And we got the Omar Beckles that we probably thought we were signing in January, the one that's been promoted out of this division and Captain Leighton Orient were titled three years ago. He was absolutely superb. I can't recall him missing a header. He was big, he was strong, he was vocal. He didn't shirk a battle. And perhaps more importantly, he coached and cajoled Smith and Dobbs through again because they were going to come on strong for periods. They've got Ched Evans. Will Davies is a decent striker. and they make changes so you're on different types of battles and different types of problems to solve and we solved all of them. It's not spectacular. I understand the concerns that we've still not scored a goal in three competitive games this season but I think there are some fairly extenuating circumstances surrounding that. It's not because we're rubbish and are not creating a chance. I think I put, I see a stat last night on social media that said we the frame of the goal six times in 46 league fixtures last season. We've hit five in the first two so... We're creating chances, we're forcing keepers to make good saves. And when we're beating the keeper, unfortunately we've run into a crossbar a couple of times and a post. So I think goals will come. Defensively, we looked a lot better. Just need to keep people fit, we? That's the thing, isn't it? I mean, like the chances thing, know, I'm really encouraged by that because seasons past, we've gone to games and we've been clinging on and a 0-0 has been like the, the ceiling of our expectation, right? It's like. Well, we know we don't look particularly capable of creating chances unless we get something from a set piece. We're struggling to score, especially away from home, but we are creating chances. So that's good. But you know, moving on to what you just touched on there. The injuries are, I don't know whether we need to get a witch doctor, whether we all need to send a congregation around a pitch and sort of urinate in each corner of the pitch or do something. some, have someone cast a spell on the training ground. I just don't understand it. Like we, we have had this injury issue for a while and like granted we have been architects of our own downfall in the past with some of the, some of the signings we've made. mean, Josh Andrews, the poor guy, ⁓ you know, it isn't his fault that he gets injured, but he signed for us. by all, you know, to all stories were without a medical, ⁓ proceeded to be someone who struggled for fitness all the way through. He's gone to Grimsby town. He's built their hopes up with a positive first performance and now he's out for a few weeks. but we're, we're having this happen to players who previously haven't had a particularly bad, do you know what I mean? So, you know, and it isn't necessarily training methods because they've not been with us that long, you know, and as, as Ainsworth said, I think, ⁓ after the Fleetwood game. These aren't training injuries. These are in game injuries. So it is, I think just rank bad luck in some of these cases. You know, I know immediately you see these things and you see it's happening a lot to one club and you think, well, there must be a reason for this. We must find the reason for this or we must find someone to blame for this. Is it the physio staff? Is it this? Is it that? You see it all on social media. People just desperate to cling onto something. Sometimes it is just bad luck and you get an injury like the one that Liam Gordon had, that was just bad luck. When you get an injury like the one Kadim Harris had at the weekend, that's just bad luck. The thing is they're happening to important senior players in the team. Were you able to see a bit more clearly from where you were what happened with Kadim? I know he didn't look great when he came off. Not really. than probably Reese from German Jewels has probably seen it better than me because he'd have been looking at a TV screen. We were in So we were to the left of where the dugouts were on the pitch. So we'd have been in the, like near the corner flag. obviously you sort of see the Elders near a few minutes before as well. Nobody sort of thought anything of it. And then there was the tussle with the Fleetwood player. But again, you didn't see anything untoward. I know Gareth's come out and said, it looks like he got his studs caught in the turf. And then there's a nudge from the Fleetwood player, obviously doesn't understand what's happening. Again, I know we got away with it with Liam Gordon. I'm not sure we get away with it again. The way he was taken off on a stretcher, looked like his knee was putting, his legs were putting a brace together. To me, from where I would sat, he was obviously very emotional, it looked like. It was first, was hands over face. It then looked like it was head in shirt. So potentially he's... getting emotional and obviously understands that it's a serious one, which is a real shame because he started the season fairly positively. I know we've not scored a goal, so we can't say anything in terms of goal contributions. But in terms of his general play, I Khadim had looked really impressive. But yeah, and I had a conversation with someone on X on Sunday and you go back to the nature of the injuries and someone said, well, if they're all muscular, then we need to investigate. Absolutely. If we've got nine people out and they're all muscular, then you can question the training methods, you can question the physio team. But like you say, Liam Gordon, freak knee injury, Khadim Harris, freak knee injury, Cameron Antwai had to have surgery because of bad tackle against Barrow back in February. Ethan Colburn's missed six months because he got a bad ankle impact injury against MK Don's back in March. So that's four of the nine straight away. I think Daki took a whack at Dover. And of course we're going to be careful with him because of his ACL history. Gareth McLeary's becoming frustrating because we got told he just does his own thing in pre-season but then he's lasted 20 minutes so I can understand people getting a bit knocked about that. Sam Tabares is obviously frustrating coming, tweaked a hamstring, that's muscular. But I don't think it's, like you say, it's not the same type of injury for every single player that's missing and some of these, at least four, have been because of tackles or like you say, just freakish stuff, landing awkwardly or... Studs getting caught in a pitch, is it to do with the pitchers? They're harder at the moment, nobody knows, but surely it turns at some point. if I see a black cat across the road and I'm not directly affiliated to the football club, contrary to what some say, but it feels like we've run over about 50 of them at the moment, not just one or two. Yeah, in terms of this week, obviously it's a big week because transfer window shuts next Tuesday, I think. So yeah, fingers crossed. We get some reinforcements and we get to see the likes of Dachie and Olly Wright, maybe even Coleman. And then things look a lot better, don't they? And if we beat Northampton, all's right with the world again, but this is Gillingham. It immediately gives us a selection dilemma for Northampton on Saturday as well. Like even in those two, those two team selections that we saw and you know, they've been injury hit, but. There is a certain way that Gareth Ainsworth clearly wants to play. There is a certain way he wants to set up with, with, with his wide players in particular. And now one of them's out injured. Is he just going to plug someone else straight into that role? Someone like, ⁓ Conor McManus who could come in and just plug and play straight in at left wing back. Or would he look at moving someone up Brophs out there and playing him out on the left and maybe moving someone else into. into that advanced midfield role. It's going to be interesting to see. ⁓ mean, like he's been making noises Ainsworth that more players are coming back. Could we even see Bradley Dack at the weekend, for example? And if he comes in, the natural movement, I guess, would be to put Brophy out on the left to accommodate Dack in the middle. But I don't know. don't know. mean, what if you were if you were Mr. Ainsworth and you were looking at the team based on the players you know are available right now, who would you who would you put in there? Based on the fact that even if Bradley Dax fit for the weekend, I wouldn't start him. Based on the fact that we've heard from Gareth, be very careful with these players. For me, Conor McManus goes to left wing back. I was impressed against Luton. I was impressed Saturday. There was a couple of times he got left one on one. Didn't dive in, stood up, held his position, gave away corners, but that's fine. You can then get set back up and pick up your men in the box. There was one right at the end where he got done on the inside, which was the cross for the late header that landed on the roof of the net, luckily. I like Khadim Harris, but McManus arguably gives you that more natural balance if he plays as a wingback. He said in his interview where he joined, he's played there, he said he's played equally at left back as an orthodox fullback, he can play left-sided centre back, but for me you don't touch the back three because Dobbs, Smith and Beckles deserve to play again. So for me, Brophy stays in the 10. Conor McManus comes in as the left wingback. The only slight one we've still got is obviously we haven't got a right wing back, which means Nick Freeman's a little bit like a duck out of water. But I thought in fairness to Freeman, two good deliveries. How often have we said that from the same player in a 90 minute game over the last few years? Very rarely. I've had a couple of discussions with a few people on social media about can Will Goodwin do better with them? But we'll get to that. But for me, Conor McManus comes in. rest stays the same if everyone's fit and available. Although James Brophy did have quite the firesized ice packing around his calf at full time, but I'd imagine that was probably precautionary or hopefully some sort of cramp. He wasn't limping or anything, given our luck with injuries at the moment, I'm not taking anything as a gimme. We don't need any more. don't need anymore. We should be sponsored by sort of a cotton wool company or a cryotherapy company or something. We need some help from somewhere. But you just touched on it there and that was going to be my next question. And it led on from the Freeman thing because I thought Freeman, from what I saw of him, looked quite good. mean, obviously he isn't playing in his natural position. So we have to view it through that lens whenever we see him out there. But he got to the byline a couple of times, put some good deliveries over and ⁓ Will Gilby getting on the end of these chances, A, that's a positive, right? Absolutely. things first. Previously, those sorts of deliveries, if we got them, would go into the box and there'd be the general call will be, is no one in there? You know what? He's in there. He's getting on the end of these chances. At the moment, they're not going in for him. But I would prefer to look on the positive side that he's getting on the end of them. ⁓ and, I mean, what's the, what's, what was the feeling among the fan base when you were there on Saturday? Cause you've got a player there who he's new to the team, the whole team and you in terms of they're still bedding in and he's getting into positions and he's getting chances. He's hit the target with a couple on Saturday. They just, they just weren't, they weren't decisive enough contacts, were they? They, they were easy for the goalkeeper when maybe they could have been a little bit more, a little bit more of a test. But as I say, he's getting on the end of them. So what was the general sort of temperature within the crowd for how they were responding to Goodwin and his chances? At the time I think was just how he's unlucky. Like you say, it was good football. The second chance is really good football. think Ronan now breaks down the right, goes in outside to win. I think there's a chance for Sharp. He sort of holds his position, gives it back to Brophy, then plays a really good boy, just slightly over hit it to be fair for Brophy. But that's only because he's that good and we know. he's usually right on the money, but Nick Freeman's still able to cross it. First one, I gave Goodwin the benefit of the doubt. I thought because it was a cross that was stood up rather than whipped, and I think it was just ever so slightly behind him. So he's trying to generate his power and he's obviously having to take a step away from the goal. I think if he's running onto it, then I'd say, yeah, you probably should score because you then got a full aim at the goal. But because you're having to arch your neck backwards, that reduces your angle. So I'd say that was, well, The title of my shows over the weekend was it was a game of half chances. I didn't think anybody had a clear cut chance in the game for either side. So I'm definitely in the camp of Goodwin is doing well to get these on target. Of course, the one we go back to is the left footed one that he should have scored against Walsall last week, but he knows that we know that. But yeah, we've got a striker that's new that people have accused to be an injury prone who's got into probably four or five really good positions. Same as Ronan Hale. think if one goes in for either of them, then I think two or three might follow really quickly. You just need that spark and that switch from the first one and then we'll go, ⁓ look, we are creating chances and we do know how to stick them in the back of the net. But for me, Will Goodwin has been very good in the two league games. I think there was one bit of play where he set Hale away as well with a ball in the channel. Hale just didn't have enough pace to run away from the centre half, unfortunately. I've liked what I've seen. He's unlucky with the one at the end. Did he get a touch? Was it Harry Waldox cross come shot that hit the post? According to the apps I looked at, it seems Will did get studs on it. So he's now at the flame of the goal three times in 180 minutes. So another one who's probably run over a black cat as well, feels. But no, like him, offers a lot, mobile, plays back to goal. Links play really well. We said it last week, I'll say it again. a lesser degree because I thought the lad that played centre midfield and just sat in front of Fleetwood's back three had Brophy under control more than against Walsall. But yeah, that triangle really encouraged. Yeah. And I think Hale, the thing I like with Hale is Hale's prepared to take shots when people aren't expecting him to hit them. know, he will, he will hit shots early and he will score a couple of goals this season where he's just caught the keeper off the line or. He's caught him napping and he nearly did that on Saturday with the effort that came off the post. I think the keeper was beat. know, like six inches to the left he scores. he's, you they are doing a lot of things right. It's just a little bit of poor, poor luck that they haven't actually hit the back of the net yet. Fingers crossed we get that on Saturday against Northampton. Before we touch on the Northampton game, we mentioned the injuries. That just heightens the need for some reinforcements, right? I know Ainsworth this week has said he's looking at getting another three players in before the transfer window shuts, which shuts at 11pm on September the 1st. So it doesn't shut at the end of the month. It's actually the end of month. Isn't that the day we played Chesterfield? So it might be that we have to get our business done the day before. You would, well, you always want to get your business done the day before if you can. Cause ⁓ agents will have you over a barrel otherwise. I always think if you're doing your business at the end, then you know, you're in trouble, but we are in trouble. We've had some injuries. We need some more players. So, where, where are we most in need? mean, I think the general consensus is yeah, we need a centre half. And least one probably. Yeah. So if, if we take the view that we're getting three players or the plan is to get three players, one's probably a centre half, right? One's probably a forward of some description. What sort of forward would you want if, if you want a forward? And who were the third player, or so what role do you want the third player to take? Well, before Saturday, I'd have said we use Robbie McKenzie as a centre half and you bring in another experienced centre half and then that gives you really good set. So that would have given you Beckles, Dobbs, Smith McKenzie, plus A and other. ⁓ then I'd have said centre forward or someone that can play across the front, so to speak, and another energetic centre midfielder. Because I think we've seen. with Zynaelbrus. legs can give you a leg up in the middle of the park and give you a head start and for half hour alongside Armani Little we said last week the energy was really good and it dropped off when Robbie McKenzie went in there. Not because Robbie McKenzie can't play central midfield but he's a different type of central midfielder. He's not going to be one that runs around a pitch and gets about as quickly as the other two. But then obviously we've now got the Khadim Harris conundrum and we've now only got one natural left wing back. who's a kid that's never played senior football up until the last three weeks and it's a grand total of about half an hour, give or take. Yeah. So do you then ask Robbie McKenzie to do centre half and centre midfield? Because that position's still not ideal because we've not seen Bradley Dack, we've not seen Ethan Coleman. Cameron Antwys obviously coming back after six months injured. Gareth McLeary who can play 10 has now pulled up Lane again. So think the two that were nailed on are center back and a striker. Can you get someone that plays left wing back and centre midfield? I'm not so sure. Do we need another? We need to clone Nick Freeman and Robbie McKenzie potentially, but whether a cloning machine's in the budget, I'm not entirely sure. Yeah, we need another Swiss army knife, don't we? It's so difficult. mean, like just the names you were listing off there that, know, if we get this person back or get this person. If we have a fully fit squad, our squad ain't too bad, I don't think. I really don't. I do think we're short. I think we're short in the final third. think we definitely need another, another striker for sure. I'm pleased to hear that probably need one of them. And Ethan Coleman are back this weekend. Then it solves your problem. Then you go, we need a striker at centre back and a left wing back. But we've not seen either of them in a competitive game. One of them we've not seen in a competitive game since the middle of March. yeah. Suboptimal I think the phrase would be. It's a, you know, fingers crossed. It's a 46 game season. Hopefully as things progress, we've started to get some of these. some of these boys fit and Barath did insinuate that there were two that had said yes, didn't he, in his post-match on Saturday? He said that we've got two yeses, it looks like it's just a case of, know, dotting the Ises and crossing the T's, so to speak. So fingers crossed we'll look a lot stronger for Saturday, even if we don't have injured players back because two new signings obviously go onto that bench. But in fairness, I thought the young lads that came on were really, really good on Saturday. I thought they added real value to that team. I know some weren't on long. They were all involved, whether that was for three minutes, five minutes, 15 minutes. I thought they all had a part to play in almost nicking us a winner. If you say Warnock or Kendall, or certainly getting us over the line in terms of someone like Connor McManus. And it's all great experience. Hopefully, Stas has been good stead for later in the season when maybe they might not be as regular in the team as they are right now, because needs must right now. But if and when they are called upon as the season goes on. they've got that experience in the bank that they're now collecting early on in the season. fingers crossed that sets them up nicely for as the season goes on and we start to get our senior players back, everything starts to look a little bit more rosy in the garden at Priestfield. We've got Northampton this weekend, Matt, and they've had a similar sort of start to us. They drew their first game and then they lost to a pretty controversial goal crew at the weekend. I didn't think the goal should have stood personally. think technically, technically, shouldn't, their striker did a D on Dublin basically. He hid off the pitch and then came around and sneaked. Or a Gary Crosby for those that were little older. Well yeah, was Andy Dibble, the man city goalkeeper, he headed it out of his hand didn't it? Yeah. But he was off the pitch and once you're off the pitch, you're not supposed to re-end. I know when you go off the pitch your momentum and stuff. because if the referee didn't give him permission to leave the field of play then he has to ask to come back on. I'm all there for it. I'm not going to lie. If it's against my team, fuming, but it's fun. It's hilarious because it's not us, but no, it's a horrible way to lose a game of football when you've done all right and then you get done by something like that. yeah, so that's their season so far. They're coming off the back of that, coming down to Priestfield. So neither side have scored yet, am I correct? Correct. Yes. Yeah. We are, I'm looking at the table. We are the only two sides in the league that haven't scored yet. some might hope for, yeah, it's going to be, it's going to be an absolute gold fest, but hopefully, hopefully we'll, we'll get off the mark on Saturday and pick things up. But in terms of, in terms of the actual start to the season, the players been positive-ish. We just need some goals, right? If we can come away from Saturday, even if it's a draw, having put one or two in the back of the net, I think that'll make people feel a lot more comfortable with things, you? Yes and no, but then some will just moan and concentrate on the fact that there's nothing in the W column. sitting in now a few days out from the game not to get too much away. think if we play as well as we have for probably, if I've worked it out right, 185 of the 199 minutes that we've had to get through, I think we win the game. Sadly, I think we're better than Northampton. I think we've got better players. I think we've got more match winners. So yeah, blame me if obviously invariably it's 0-0 or we get beat 1-0 in the last minute again, but I think we'll win the football match on Saturday. Two things I want to see, right? I want to see a goal and I want to see no injuries for 90 minutes. Goals have no injuries. I know, I know. I'll have the moon on a stick and a winning lottery ticket as well, please. But no, it's fingers crossed. If we can get through 90 minutes without someone else getting crocked, that would be very nice. A goal and a win would just be the cherry on top of the cake. It's the fact that they're crocked for months. That's the thing. can understand someone coming up and they go, it's a week or two, but it seems everything at the moment is two months minimum, which is really frustrating. like I said, cut the signings this week and it looks a little bit better, doesn't it? And if we win on Saturday, four points from three games, new team, loads of people missing. I don't think everything's that bad in the world, is it? And it'll be an unbeaten run, we'll be too unbeaten. So, you know, it's all things, it's all things to cling onto, but it's so early in the season. It's so early in the season. We guess there's a win on Saturday. Things will start to pick up. Fingers crossed. That is what we get against Northampton town on Saturday. We'll wrap things up on Blood Sweat and Gills this week. Before we go, please do subscribe to Gills in the Blood TV. Matt has content. coming at you left, right and centre throughout the week, whether it be match day previews, match day reviews, vlogs from the games themselves, all sorts going on. Check out the, was it the League Two review? it League Two weekly? League Two Hour. League Two Hour, which will be probably live by the time you see this podcast. So if you haven't already been on there for the replay, dive on and watch that as well. ⁓ Check out gils365.news for all your Gillingham coverage. We have a free trial. Sign up for a free trial. You can have monthly or annually. You get a seven day free trial. Check it out if you like what you see. Let that subscription roll on. If not, bid us farewell and you'll take our best wishes. Fingers crossed you'll like what you see. Follow the coverage through the course of the 26-27 League 2 season. That's all we've got for you on Blood, Sweat and Gills this week. Fingers crossed. We're talking about our first win of the season next time we get behind the microphone for episode number three. Until next time, up the chills.