Latest / Blood, Sweat & Gills / Grit, character, and an unexpected matchwinner | Shrewsbury Town 1-2 Gillingham

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Grit, character, and an unexpected matchwinner | Shrewsbury Town 1-2 Gillingham · Blood, Sweat & Gills

• BSG 014 Shrewsbury Town A v2: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Blood Sweat and Jills, the Jills365 podcast with me, Simon from Jills365, and him, Matt from Jills and the Blood TV. And it's a happy podcast this week because we only went to Shrewsbury and got all three bloody points, Matt. You must be over the moon with that. Long away days are plentiful in this division. They're always a bit sweeter when you come home with all three points in your skyrocket though. Absolutely, yeah. It makes the journey home feel a lot quicker. And this was probably one of the more tricky ones this season in terms of of hitting traffic and being diverted off the motorway and back on for various reasons. we got sent to some service station that I've never been to. I think it was Telford on the way up because we couldn't get to Norton Keynes because of an accident. Horrible, horrible service station. At that point I'm thinking, is this a side of what's coming this afternoon? It was essentially like a big living room and the options were more limited than our midfield at the moment. wow. But yeah, really happy with the performance, really happy with the result for me. And I put a poll out as you know on on my ex account every match day, after every match day, just to gauge what people's overriding opinion is. And I make it difficult on purpose. I like force people to pick just one. I thought we had to do a lot of stuff that we've not done to win football matches this season so far. we've gone to Rother up Rochdown, we've gone to Rotherham, poor sides when we've played and we've dismantled them. Not come under enough pressure to be really under the kosh. Trammere at home, Bristol Rovers at home, close for forty five minutes, then we dismantled them both second half. This was very different. Got pegged back, had to soak up a lot of territory, had to soak up a lot of pressure, albeit I don't think Ollie Wright had to make a save. Dare I say that you wouldn't expect him to make, and then we found a way to get it over the line in the last ten minutes. No, really pleased with that one. And yeah, we're in a nice place. We're eighth. We're two points off the top three heading into November. I think, and I've said it before, considering everything that we've had to deal with, and it's now been confirmed that we've got a second season ending injury with Eli King, we're going along nicely at the moment to be where we are with a brand new team. And half of that brand new team not available due to injury, I think to be eighth after fourteen games and essentially a third of the season gone, we're going along fairly well. Yeah, I mean, given the injuries we've had, to to think that before the start of the season, if someone said that we'd had the amount of first team as that injured that we've had, you'd assume that we'd be bottom three, bottom four at this point. But you know, the fact that we're doing that well is is such a such a a credit to the players that have been turning out there and performing. Quick question for you. Andy Smith, was he l was he lost? Is I that's the only explanation I can think of for why he was in the six yard box. Yeah, I had no idea while he was up there. And it's weird because you watch the phase of play and you see Nick Freeman put the ball in the box. It then gets cleared out the other side to Bradley Dak, who I think's crossing it, but it takes the nick. But yeah, absolutely no idea why Andy Smith was stood three yards from goal. Absolutely over the moon that he was, though. And to be fair to Smudge, I think he said he won't sure while he was there either. Yeah, I think his quote to Jill's TV was, I decided I'd get giddy and join in, I think is what he said. It reminds me of that that reel or gif that you see on social media of the of Frodo Baggins on going on an adventure. So that was just just the image I had of him sort of hopping and skipping over the halfway line into their penalty area and then just tapping it in and and running off. The only complaint I had, and I've just did this on the League Two hour as well, was We had basically the whole end behind the goal. He went to the one block where there was no Gillian fans sitting. Yeah, he's not an experienced goal celebrator, is he? this is I was gonna say in his defense it was probably he was giddy delirious at that point and probably didn't know where he was running, but couldn't care less in essence because he won us the game. Yeah, he came close last week, I think, with that with a with a header. again was it Grimsby came close with a header and was unlucky not to score. Interestingly, he was obviously he was selected in in the starting eleven. We spoke about the changes that we were potentially thinking could be made for this game, and we thought Logan Dobbs was worth bringing in. He was brought in, it was for Jack Daly in the end, which I thought was maybe a little harsh just on a purely performance standpoint. But as we spoke about in the in in a in our group chat after the game, it did reunite our most established consistent back three. how did they go as an overall unit and had you know, Dobbs I think play I understand play particularly well, but how did they all do as a unit? He was my man of the match, Logan Dobbs. I thought was outstanding, absolutely outstanding. Like we've spoken in previous episodes and and in WhatsApp chats and on social media about both Dobbs and Waldock's form from the early season, just dropping off a little bit. We've spoken about Dobbs being targeted probably from York City away onwards, teams going down that side. I thought he was superb and Obviously, you get the eye test that tells you that, but his numbers backed it up as well. I think it was 17 defensive contributions. It was something like double figures for clearances, five or six ball recoveries. He won all his battles. I said on the match day review on my channel that he got himself a silly yellow card for essentially hip tossing Josh Davidson, for any of those that watch WWE or WWF as it used to be known when it was better. but I didn't mind it. Because he said. I'm not gonna get bullied by you just because you're older than me and you're a big physical centre forward. And I thought, yeah, Logan Dobbs has grown up in this game. And I mean to give us some credit as well, so I think we was only one or two out from the potential eleven that we picked. I think it might have only been I think we was torn between Daly and Dobbs. And I think the only one we got wrong was we had Tom Eves to start up front because we didn't know that Lamin Silla was gonna be fit to play. But I think apart from that, we picked the team. We were pretty much there. We were pretty much there. Which leads me to probably the biggest change. It's it's a a two man change, which was the the middle of the midfield, which the general consensus after the Grimsby game was that's the area of biggest biggest need where we needed to make some changes in the area of the pitch. Harry Waldock came in, Ethan Coleman came in. But what I wanted to clarify, because I was I wasn't I wasn't at the game. I was listening to listening to it on the radio. My understanding from what they were saying was that actually Waldock was playing quite h quite high up and it was more James Brophy who was dropping in and almost doing the almost playing the Eli King role, if you like, and being the the one directing the traffic a little bit. Is that how you saw it from your standpoint? I think they alternated and and that's why it worked so well. And I spoke to Ollie, who does Weeks' football finds. on on social media and we spoke at half time. The biggest thing was you had three central midfielders in there that were all doing jobs that they were capable of. You wasn't asking them any of them to do anything that are not comfortable doing. So you had Ethan Coleman just sitting in front of that back three, breaking up play, giving it simple, passing it square. He did pass it forwards sometimes because I know people get a bit obsessed with a defensive midfielder having to pass it forwards. But just giving it to people that then could go and create Avok higher up the pitch. You've then got Harry Waldock, who's the legs, the the fearlessness, the younger one, the one that plays with no scar tissue, to quote a popular phrase from you over previous episodes. He's able to join in because he's got the energy to get back. And you've got James Brophy, who's just so clever and just such a brilliant footballer at the level, who's the technician, the creator, the one that can unpick a defense. It just looked so incredibly balanced. And I said on my review show, this has to be the midfield three moving forward. And it's not going to be perfect every week because they're not going to all be that good every week. And we'll still have games where we get beat. We'll still have games where they're not quite at it. But in terms of getting three midfielders together in the middle of the pitch, that all know their job, that are all comfortable doing the bits that you want them to do, dare I say it, I think we might have just stumbled across. R. E. Ly King conundrum. Because we know now he's not going to play this season. So we have to deal with that. We've sat here for weeks talking about it. I've sat here on my channel talking about it. It's been discussed on social media. How do we find that control in the middle of the park? We spoke about Bradley Dak, but he's not fit enough to start games. James Brophy is fit enough to start games. I thought all three of them were outstanding as a trio for an hour before Ethan Coleman had to be withdrawn, obviously, because we've just still got to protect Ethan. He's not played a lot of football. Yeah. Yeah. And it's it's excit just sitting here listening to that, it's like it it's genuinely exciting to know that we had what on paper, well, in reality, was a major problem with our midfield last week. Our midfield looked awful. It was back to the midfield of last season where we were getting overrun and there was just so much not not working about that that area of the pitch. And in one week, with a change of personnel and a slight tw Perhaps a slight tweak in the way the system works. we seem to have a solution. And we do have a strong squad. You know, going back to Gareth Ainsworth's comments from a couple of weeks ago, where maybe his enthusiasm got the better of him a little bit, where he said he's got the strongest squad in the league. He has got a strong squad. He has got a strong squad. Shrewsbury's boss after the game said, Look at the players they could bring on, look at the players we could bring on. They're they've got strength in depth that we don't have. And, you know, to bring on the experience of people like Bradley Dak and okay, Armani Little might not be in the best form at the moment, but to bring him in to just be scrappy and and run around to try and win some win some balls and break things up in the last few minutes. For me, that's the best way to use him in that scenario. to l add a little bit of energy later on in games where we might be getting tired. But to have that that trio in the midfield work at the first attempt away from home where you you where we're under the kosh, that's a major plus. A major plus when we've got coming and we'll we'll talk about a couple of the games we've got coming up. But we've got two really, really big games coming up in November against Crewe and Salford that will really test us. one at home, one away. And we need to know that our midfield is sorted for games like that. Cause if we don't have a midfield, we're gonna get beaten in both those games. So to have the s s seemingly a solution in place so quickly, that's really encouraging. Absolutely. Yeah. And and how often do we say about teams that that almost accidentally fall on a combination because of injuries and and then go on to thrive and Yeah, we've all spoken about Gareth Ainsworth over the last few weeks because he talks about not being too high, not being too low, and then in a matter of a fortnight he'd gone from having the best squad in the division to to having a a squad full of players that or a squad that included players, should I say, that were not capable of playing League Two. see but you have to take it with a pinch of salt. He comes out after a game, he's emotional. We know how he is. He's a jack in the box on the touchline. So he's having a microphone shoved under his chin five minutes after full time. So you're not getting time to take a breath and think about what you're gonna say. but on him, we have to give him credit as well because he's taken a lot of stick from the Jules Faithful over the last six months, a year, however long, and rightfully so sometimes. And I think even this season, sometimes with his substitutions, they've not been quite right. But he said, after Grimsby, I've got players that are not up to task. We have to make changes. He didn't just make one or two just to To make a gesture. He made four changes. That is 40% of your starting eleven, just under. Robbie McKenzie wasn't even in the squad. So we don't know whether that's new parent related or that was just tactical. But he came out. I'm Arney Little, who'd been poor against Grimsby, was dropped to the bench. And like we've said, to find a solution in the middle of the park is brilliant. But if that gone wrong. And we got beat, he gets caned again. So we have to give him credit, as well as the players that went in there and implemented the game plan to not perfection, but it was as close to a a perfect away day as you can get. We were solid, we conceded a penalty. Oli Ryder's only had to make saves you'd expect him to make. We didn't concede goals from open play. We didn't concede goals from set pieces against the best set piece team in the division, I believe. At kickoff, we scored a really good opening goal. We created other good chances and we found a way to win a tight football match, which we've not managed to do this season. So again, we like to do, there was a lot of stuff ticked off in that 98 minutes, all positive. Yeah, and obviously looking at it from the standpoint of what we'd spoken about last week, and I wrote about it on on Jill's three six five in the lead up to the game, based on what he'd said. saying changes need to be made. The proof in the pudding was what changes would he make if any, and where would those changes be? And what those changes told us was that he saw what we saw last week. So he identified the same issues that the majority of people inside Priestfield identified when we lost 4 1 to Grimsby. So that's very, very good to know. That's very good to know. because he's not there trying to Protect isn't the right word because he does protect his players. And he spoke about that after the game that, he felt that there was a bit of stick flying around. He didn't say that any of it was unjustified. He just said there was some stick flying around. And he said that, he needs to look after his players or the rest of it. But you've got to win football matches. You've got to pick your best team. And if players aren't performing, you've got to make changes. He made the right changes. So for me, that's a massive tick in the box for for Ainsworth. previous I remember years and years and years ago Back way back in the days of Andy Hess in his first ma first stint as manager, where our squad had aged, our team had aged to the point of not being competitive anymore, and he wouldn't change the team. And I think some of that was partly because he'd played with those same players on the way up into the blind loyalty, didn't it? Yeah. And it became a bit like that. And there were players that needed to come out and he wouldn't do it. Ainsworth has shown in this instant in in this instance. that if people need to come out of the team, he will bring them out of the team. And he's done it in a way that I would imagine that when they get put back in the team, they'll still run through a brick wall for him. it sounds like it sounds like Armani Little came on and did a decent job when he came on. he's got a lot of stick, justifiable, but none nonetheless you want players to go out there and give everything they've got when they're on the on the field and not have a not not not have the hump if they've been dropped. So Fingers crossed everything, squad harmony wise, remains intact. But yeah, that was an important win. We're now eighth in the league, just outside the playoffs on goal difference. would you say two points off top three or three points off top three? It's very close. Two points off bird on Walsall, but albeit I think they might have a game in hand, but they've got a win though. They have. Yeah, Walsall and Barnett are second and third. They've both got a game in hand. but yeah, to be in this position. And especially given how patchy our form's been of late, if our form had been even slightly better, we'd be sitting in the playoffs looking very, very rosy right now indeed. So yeah, super positive stuff. And now we've got a little bit of a break from league action. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I don't know. sometimes sometimes when you, when you've just come off a win in the league, you want your next league game to come nice and quickly. You can start to build some momentum. We're at home in the FA Cup against Barrow on Saturday. And he's Ainsworth said he wants to go strong for this game. he he values the competition, he wants to go strong, he wants us to have a cup run. All great to hear. But he has got a squad that's some players are nursing injuries, some are working their way back, some have had a lot of games in a short space of time. If you're in his shoes, how do you approach this game on Saturday? What kind of changes, if any, do you make? Do you look to carry the momentum on from what we had on Saturday? Keep the team roughly the same. Or do you use it to bring a couple more players in, get a few minutes in, a few legs and try and tee things up? 'Cause we've also got the EFL trophy, the following the following game, I think. And then that's the key for me, so if we've got that on the Tuesday as well. Because I think it means we can go semi strong, if that's the phrase in the FA Cup. Strong enough to win the football match, because he does love the FA Cup and I hope we do though strong enough to win it 'cause I love the FA Cup. Yeah. You've then got the opportunity on Tuesday to give more minutes to people. And the other thing is we've heard that a few players are close. So how many of I I don't think Gordon will be yet. I think that's going to be the end of the month. But Tabares, Albarez, Goodwin could be available Saturday. Tom Eades needs a start. Lamincilla is wearing a fairly substantial plaster cast on his arm at the moment, so I wouldn't start him. I wouldn't start Ronan. I'd I'd maybe have him in the squad. I think Ollie Wright will play Saturday because I think then Rohan Luther will play Tuesday in the trophy. Omar Beckles is probably a candidate to be given a weekend off purely because of the fact that he's played a lot of football and he is thirty five and he's our captain. You don't want to lose him for league games. So you'd imagine Jack Daly comes into the start in eleven. Maybe Andy Smith comes out to start in eleven because he's played a lot of football, whereas Logan has missed The last couple of games before Saturday. If Robbie Mackenzie's not injured, I'd imagine he gets a game in some capacity. Bradley Datt needs to start a football match soon if we want to start getting impacts from him. and obviously we're not allowed nice things, so we get told that Sam Dubarres is close, and obviously Nick Freeman limps off at the weekend after taking a whack in the build-up to the goal. Although someone said they noticed on the highlights he was walking fairly okay. after the game. So fingers crossed it was just a kick rather than a twist or an opening up of ligaments. Yeah, he's probably a injury there. I would send I would have Nick Freeman nowhere near the squad at the weekend. He's played I think I think he played ninety minutes of every league game up until last Saturday against Grimsby. So he's probably only missed twenty five minutes of league football. and then I suppose to chuck in another caveat is if you've got players on loan, do parent clubs want them getting cup tied? Yeah. Do we have many of them that are fit though? I'm just trying to think who we've got on loan that's actually fit. Bailey's fit, Kendall's fit, Silla's fit. Yeah, because under normal circumstances, Kendall would be a prime candidate to for a start in one of those two games, I would have done. Well, the other two. Obiero's injured. Who's the fifth? Obiero's injured and Crikey, who else have we got? People are probably shouting at the podcast now, going, It's so so I don't know. This is where you want to be a live show and you could ask someone to tell Yeah. I I d I d I don't know. I don't know. I've And I can't lose my phone because I've recorded on it. Complete complete brain fog. I'm gonna look while we're talking. But there's definitely scope for some changes. Definitely scope for some changes. It's just it's how you balance it, isn't it? You don't want to go too weak for the FA Cup. the EFL trophy you could take or leave, but I know that I think if we get a win in that we have a chance of progressing into the latter stages of that competition as well, which is obviously a of benefit from a squad a squad development and competitive game standpoint. So he's gonna wanna win both those games. It's not like we can throw one away, but it's yeah, it's it's I'd I I'd I'd definitely want us to get through the FA Cup game. I would go I would go heavy on the FA Cup game. Yeah, and then for Northampton your Hailes and your your Beckles and your Freemans and your Brofe's don't even travel. No, I think I think you've got a You gotta wrap some of these guys up in Cottonwool and play in the in in in the games that really count. And Nether League games. we're we're in a good position, but we have had we have had a lot of injuries. The last thing we need is self inflicted injuries. I think the injuries that we've had, and I know there's been a lot said. We've got a lot of amateur physicians on on on on on social media who seem to think that, you know, we need to completely disband our medical team and hire a whole load and whole load of new people. Well Doesn't matter how professional your medical people are, if people are getting injured on the pitch through just catching their studs in turf and doing their knee, there's not really a hell of a lot a changing physio can do for you. And and we we we've had we've had two instances of that and they're both bro both resulting in a season ended injuries. Well he writes the other one. Of course he is, yeah. I'll go through the squad and I'll go at it in number order in my head listening to you and I'm thinking it's the it's number one, it's the first one in the list, yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's it's literally the first player on the squad list. Yeah. but there you go. So then honestly. Yeah, yeah. Welcome to the Gillingham Newbies podcast. it's it's it's I I I'd like to see us be as strong as possible against against Barrow in the the game at home. A lot of their fans on social media when the draw was made said just give the tie to Gloucester City. So I think they're about as keen for it as we were. Is this Just the the fans not being too keen on the long trip for our beautiful away facilities. I don't know what the problem is. We give the roof and everything. No, I don't know. I I I love it when people complain about our away end. It makes me really happy. The twenty was it twenty eight year old temporary stand we've got now? It's it's it's just the best. I love it. It's got it's definitely over twenty years, isn't it? 'Cause did we buy it off of when it didn't be come from Sandwich Golf course after the open? It was from the open, yeah. I remember it's from the open. Two thousand and three. So yeah, so we're getting on for twenty five years as a bare minute. Yeah, yeah. I know I love it. I love it. Be as inhospitable as possible to the away fans. Until we get a nice new shiny stadium and we want everyone to be happy and buy lots of away tickets. Till then, fine. if you want to bring a small amount, you can be in the corner in the Gordon Gordon Road stand. If you want to bring a lot of you down, you can stand stand out there in the and also shower seal. What a brilliant piece of sponsorship for the away end, you know. 'Cause there's no seal there's no sealant from the shower in that stand at all. So no ironic away stand in the country, isn't it? In terms of it it's fantastic. It's the best and the sponsorship as well. It's it's it is the best away end. I don't care what anyone says. I know you see all these pot you put on like You know why we say that though, 'cause we don't have to sit in it. This is true. I used to stand there on occasion, but I I wouldn't sit there, I'll be honest. But But yeah, no, I hopefully, hopefully, Barrow come down, have a lovely afternoon at Priestfield and then go home having been knocked out of the FA Cup on Saturday. We've got Northampton on Tuesday night away in the trophy. Fingers crossed we get a result there. But let's just quickly throw things forward to these three games we've got in November in the league. We've got Colchester away. Colchester really struggling at the moment. They're down at the bottom end of the table. that's a game where if we go at them away from home and sort they're a team low on confidence. We get after them, get ourselves a nice win there. We're in we're in really good shape. They haven't won a game in their last six. So and they've lost three of them. And they're on a two two match skid at the moment. So we can get after them and get ourselves a win. That will set us up. Then we got two games that I think really will tell us a lot about our season. Crew who are doing very well. very efficient. They're not the highest scorers in a division. They, they're quite one of the lowest scorers in the top half. I think they're the lowest in the top no, Exeter are the lowest in the top half because they're twelfth. but crew got 17 goals scored from fourteen games played. Most of the teams around them have got in excess of twenty. but they've been pretty efficient. They don't lose many. And they're up there in fourth. Then you've got Salford who are obviously flying at the moment. You know, they can't stop winning games at the moment. and we've got them away. So on paper, that's probably our hardest game of season, and that's straight off the back of crew at home. So two really important games. We spoke about the previous month and how many points we hope to get. I think I said nine and we ended up with eight. So not not not too bad. War Athletic League games in November. How many points would represent a good haul given the the the the scale of opponent that we're gonna be up against? I think if you get four and above, you've done fine. Yeah. if you fail to win any of then you could probably say we're a little under par if we if we want to be a top seven team. Obviously the big one you target if you're saying if you're saying you only win one of the three, it's Colchester, you've got to target that one. But then if you win that, it then sets you up lovely for Crew. So but yeah, I think if we take four points, say we beat Cole Yu, drew with Crew and lost at Salford, I don't think many people batter Nilid. Yeah, I think that Colchester game is the real the real that sets the table for the next two games, right? If we if we if we lose that game or play poorly and only draw. that puts a little bit of extra pressure on the crew game, especially as that's our first home game after the Grimsby game. like in in in the league. So, you know, we're going back to the same group of people who are in the stadium, you know. Not not not everyone gets to go to away games. Some people only go to the home games. So their next league game, if they don't do the Cup game on Saturday, then th their their next game at Preschool will be the crew game. So there will be some Still a little bit of hangover from the Grimsby game mentally in some of the fan fan base, I would imagine, for that game. So hopefully we come in off the back of a good result against Colchester. But if we can pick up a result at Colchester and then go and beat Crewe, then we can really head to Salford and give it a real go. if we've got six six points in the bag heading up to Salford, we can go full YOLO and just go for it and and and not worry about Yeah, I don't want to say making a three swing, but if you've got six points from the previous two, I think then you're as close to the three swing potential as it can be, given that Salford are pr are going to beat more teams than they lose to this season. But yeah, one game at a time, I I still think even if you've got four from them first two, you can go up there and approach the Salford as almost of a bit of a a bonus if you get anything. Because I don't think many teams will get much at Salford. I know they started really slowly, didn't win it, they lost their first three games, but they've They're clearly in their straps now and they're getting used to playing our Peter Klomowski wants them to play. And it obviously helps in the summer that you can spend a thick end of two million on three footballers. That that obviously helps. but yeah, if we've got four points in the back pocket and we get beat at Salford, then so be it. But at the same time, we've got a good squad. We can beat anyone on our date if we're at it. Yeah. Yeah. And final thing, just to wrap things up, you mentioned we've got players coming back. Obviously they're at slightly different stages in their recovery. But given the players that have been, that we know are edging towards a return, who are you most excited to see back in the Gillingham side? in within the next, let's say the next 30 days? It's tricky, isn't it? Because because we're going along all right. So we're not desperate for any of I don't think. Like if we think of the reaction when Liam Gordon crumpled in a heap. Back on the fifteenth of August, I think everyone would have said him. And then seeing how the next month or so went, and then Eli King sat down on the turf at York, you'd have probably said him before we knew what the diagnosis was. But I think we're all right at the moment, in the sense that we've not got to rush any of them back. Obviously, Zayn Alboros, you can probably say, because it then takes us further away from last season's central midfield. Sam Tabares indirectly could take us away from last season's central midfield because it would free Nick Freeman up to play at his natural position. I really like what I saw from Will Goodwin at the start of the season. but Lamin Silla's come on in leaps and bands, and we now have A certain Tom Eaves the squad to call upon as well, so there's less pressure on him. Obviously, Bradley Dax's a good footballer at the level. If you can get him starting games and influencing games, that is never a bad thing. I'm gonna say Tabares, purely because he's built like a middleweight boxer. So he should be everything that you want in a modern day wing back. But of course we've got to be careful with him because. I think he went off and it was meant to be as a precaution. That was on the twenty ninth of July, so it's one hell of a precaution sitting here on the second of November. But if we've looked after him and he can be involved in a lot of games moving forward, then I think he could be potentially a very exciting fullback on the other side in the ilk of Connor McManus, who was bloody marvellous on Saturday, I have to add. as were a few. But yeah, two young marauding fullbacks. Who've got the ability to get up and down could be an exciting prospect for the second half of the season when they're both up to full speed. Yeah. You you you stole my answer. Tabaras is the one I'm most yeah. He he's the one I'm most No, no. I'm he's the one I'm most excited to see, partly 'cause I haven't seen him yet. but also because Well, I was at the game and I've barely seen him, so you're not far behind me. I think I've seen about fifteen minutes of it. Yeah, he's I just think that if he is Anything like what we've got from from Conor McManus that's gonna open us up in in so many different ways. You mentioned Nick Freeman, who people forget he's playing wildly out of position at the moment. This is not what he does. He's playing there because he's been asked to play there and he's doing a hell of a job. He's a midfield player. He's not a winger, he's not a wing back. He's a he's a midfield player. So to be able to bring him inside and to have Tabares and his his pace and his physicality out there on on on the on the right flank, I think. I'm really excited to see that. he looks a lot I saw who was it I saw Arvin Limblad. Anybody who watches Formula One will know Arvin Limblad. He's English English Formula One r driver for the Racing Bulls team. Doesn't look unlike Santa Barres. He's not got the same muscle on him that Santa Barros has got. So I went the other way and I said he looks like Jafar Jackson who played Michael in the recent biopic. I'm excited to see him I'm excited to Albers back. I'd like to see Goodwin with a good run of games playing full ninety minutes because we haven't he's he's getting to fifteen, twenty minutes and he's picking up a knock and he's playing through it for a while and then coming off, or he's just having to come straight off. Just want to see him showing more signs of durability and just 'cause he's got that. Sorry to interject, is we I think we lose Connor McManus until crew or after crew. That's the the sort of the byproducts of having actual good footballers, isn't it? You know, they they misses if it's just FA Cup and League trophy, then absolutely fine with that. You just don't want him missing through or Salford. I'm not sure of the exact dates, but it was a conversation that was on the coach on the way back that you'll have to look imminently due to go away. Have to look that 'cause it is it playoff they've got? I think it's a playoff, isn't it? Yeah, it is. Because I look I was hoping it was just friendlies and we might be able to keep hold of him, but if it's the playoffs, then you've got to let him go and absolutely he deserves it and fair play to him. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, he's been an absolute superstar for us so far. And fingers crossed that will continue as he goes through the season. But yeah, I mean, given that the last time we spoke, we it was quite kind of negative insofar as there was a lot of things that weren't going right with the team. The fact that the problems that we saw last week are being fixed and the solutions and the pro you know the The fixes are already within the building. That's really encouraging. It shows us that for all the stick that we've given the club for the recruitment over the years, we've actually recruited pretty well over the course of the last 12 months. We've got a good, a good core of players here. Just get them back fit. We've been unlucky with some fitness issues. Let's get them back fit. And as a as A's word said, wait until we get everybody fit and then then we'll really be flying. So for us to be in this state, with basically half a squad. things are looking up. We've just got to try and get some consistency. Get through November with with some positive results. Then we're into the December run. Come out of Christmas. Then it's all guns blazing for the rest of the season. Who knows? We could be celebrating something by the end of this season. So, I that cautious optimism is still there. The cautious is still there. But yeah, I I genuinely think that we've got we've got what it takes to do something this season. So Fingers crossed. Anything else you want to leave with us before before we head off? I don't think so. I think we've covered it. Looking forward to the cup tie Saturday. I'm I'm of a an age that that says the FA Cup is still the best knockout competition in the world, despite probably losing some of its stardust. But yeah, looking forward to that. Would love a cup run. it's not like the League Cup where you have to play in the middle of the week. These are plays on Saturdays. So you can you can really go at it. Get through this, and then you're one. Hind tie and one performance away from potentially getting a cracker of a home game or a we only have to look at to give him a shout out, Ben Knappman, who does the Fleetwood vlogs. if you've not had chance, go and watch his vlog from that night where they beat Arsenal in the League Cup. That to me is being a lower league football fan. Them nights mean so much more to lower league football fans than they do to Arsenal fans, and it was an incredible watch. I would love us to get to the third round and get a decent tie because Wasn't it the Gallinsons' first game? Was Leicester of the Premier League? That's right. That's right. Yeah. And I'm convinced with better players we'd have beaten them that day because they were shocking and they they found a way to beat us 1-0. But we all we all remember the glory days, don't we? The Leeds, the Charlton's, the Arsenals, the Chelsea, even r more recently, West Ham we gave a good game under Steve Evans. We beat Cardiff when they were in the Premier League the year before. I'd love that, but not at the detriment of a league. promotion according to Simon. Well, I I wasn't going that far. I just said something like I was I I would celebrate being in the playoffs. if we even if you don't get out of the playoffs. Celebrate top ten. And we've said this and we've said it plenty of times. top ten would represent a really good season for us. Anything else I think is icing and cherry and cake territory. Yeah. Yeah. And FA Cup run wise, and I I'll you've got me thinking I'd I'll do a feature on this on the site. The cup run where we got in the season when we got promoted To the to the championship was one of the best. I mentioned the problems we Sheffield Wednesday, the most iconic one of the lot, yes. Unbelievable. We beat Bradford City the the round before, who were also in the Premier League at the time. That one gets forgotten because that was just the game before the game, and then we had Sheffield Wednesday and the Medway stand was being built at the time. It was just like the temporary standard. I was there, I had John Motson two rows behind me in a in a shed. on top of some scaffolding doing the commentary. And we were the opening game on match of the day. Amazing. I've st I've still got that on a video tape somewhere. yep, there you go. I've still got it recorded on a VHS somewhere. There's kids I know now under a certain age that are going, what the hell is a VHS? But yeah, phenomenal afternoon and obviously that that Nikki South volley was again icing cherry cake territory. Yeah. And also because of the w where it took place And maybe we'll do a special on this. I don't know. But we would directly f because we were all on the side of the pitch, we would have been directly behind that volley. Almost as good as the camera angle on from match of the day at the time. It was just football perfection because everybody in that stand knew as soon as he hit it it was in. And it was just an unbelievable moment. That was the that was the game that, Andy Thompson Mark Saunders, I think, started the scoring for us. It was it was unbelievable, unbelievable stuff. And wasn't that the day we did the celebration where about half the team just fell over and laid on their backs on the middle of the presfield turn. Yeah. That was it. Mot Motti was quite concerned that everyone had dropped dead on the pitch. But no, it was unbelievable stuff. It was just that that season was the most fun I've ever had watching Jillian game. That was probably the peak, I think. Like It had everything this season. others that have a certain vintage might say sixty three, sixty four, seventy three, seventy four. Younger ones probably say twenty, twelve, thirteen. But for me, ninety nine, two thousand was was the peak of being a Gillingham fan. It was unbelievable. So maybe maybe I'll do a cut run feature and stick that on the site in the next In the next few days, given that we're heading up to the the start of the the first round. First round, by the way, regardless of who you support, especially if you're a lower league team, the first round of the FA Cup is one of the most special days on the sporting calendar. It doesn't matter who you follow. Obviously you've got your own team, but if you're not at a game, just sit back and just watch as much as you possibly can. There's loads of games on. I think TNT have got the rights to all the games and they're showing loads. Absolutely loads. So I'm not sure if BDC still get like a they get they can do almost live clips of goals going in on their VIDI printer show or the BDC have been all their goals on whatever it soccer Saturday or whatever it's called on Sky Sports. Yeah, I don't know if they're still doing that. Hopefully they are 'cause this is a day for that. Kids go free, I think is a brilliant sort of way to get people into the ground. And and fingers crossed there is a decent enough crowd. It's not gonna be. League numbers, I that. But if can get three, three and a half thousand in there to create an atmosphere and get us over the line. Yeah. Sounds quite exciting, doesn't it? it's just it's it's it's the the inconsistency people sort of get too high and get too low, don't they? To to to quote a certain manager who has himself has been getting too high and too low. But yeah, it's I'll wait to chat about a barrow one-nil win next week, so this is it. We need to we need to Treat these two impostors just the same, Matt. That's what we need to do. But yeah, it's it it's a lively season. There's a lot more to it than we've had in previous years. There's actually some positivity. There's worry that it's all gonna go the same way as it did previously, but there's a lot more hope. And it's the hope that kills you. But we are gonna stay alive for the entire season because there could be something nice towards the back end of this season for Gillinger Football Club. I maintain this as we go through the season. That I think will wrap us up. For Blood, Sweat and Jills this week. Jillingham in the FA Cup against Barrow at Priestfield. Tenor a ticket. If you don't have one, get one, get down to Priestfield and get yourself some FA Cup action. Follow everything that Matt does on the socials at Jills in the Blood TV is the handle, right? Or is it Jills in the Blood? I'm always getting confused. It's Jills in the Blood and it's Jills in the Blood TV on YouTube. Is that correct? Close enough. People follow me. There you go. Jill's a bloody finder. I really sound professional, don't I? Yeah, it's something the brand is so strong, you don't even need to give specifics. People will just find it. I don't know about that. That's how it works. That's how it works. But yeah, check out everything Matt does. He'll have all the usual video output leading into, during and out of that barrow game. And then obviously it might be slightly different this week. So don't have a there might not be a preview show. I might do something slightly different this week. and might be doing a season review so far, digging into the fourteen league fixtures if I get the time. obviously can show highlights packages 'cause of the stuff that I've got on the phone from the matchday lives. Yeah, just see see how we're ticking along. To put it all in one one video. We can see where we're at, what we're doing well, what we maybe need to do better, what we've got right, what we've got wrong. But yeah, obviously then Saturday we'll be at Priestfield for for match day live and looking forward to to the FA Cup getting underway. It should be good. It should be good. And don't forget to check out Jules 365's coverage. Jules365.news is the place to go. check out everything we have there. And if you feel like being a Jules 365 member, it costs less than a pound a week, which is dirt cheap. please do check that out. Sign up and be a part of everything that we're doing. We also have the voice notes podcast, which is on this very feed if you're getting this on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music. Or audible. So check that out as well. great podcast this past week. Obviously, whenever we get an away win, everyone's so hyped up. It's always brilliant. It's my favorite thing about Jill's 365, largely because I'm not on it. So I'm not on it that often. So but it is it is a great a great thing to check out. It's the most authentic thing we do. The fans giving their opinions as things happen during the course of all the Jills games this season. And it's the audio record. Of Gillingham Football Club season. So, yes, check out everything we do at geels365.news. Follow us on the socials at Geels365 on X, at Geels365.news on Instagram. You can follow me at Simon Headsport on all social media platforms. I think that's all family business dealt with. So let's wrap things up. Thank you so much to Matt as always. Thank you to Matt's other half for allowing us to record so late in the day. It is much appreciated. And to all of you out there, thank you for listening. And until next time, up the chill.