Latest / Blood, Sweat & Gills / Another clean sheet, but a midfield problem to solve | Gillingham 0-0 Newport County
Transcript
- Simon Head: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Blood, Sweat and Jills. I'm Simon from Jills365. Here is Matt from Jills and the Blood TV. Looking back over a bit of a bit of a 50-50 kind of a weekend. We went into our home game on match day nine of League Two, looking to bounce back from a pretty horrific defeat at York City. How would we fare? Would we get a reaction? We came away with a nil nil draw where I think if you want positives you can find them. If you want negatives, you can find them as well. So we'll unpack all and sundry on this on this week's pod and ⁓ get things ready for next weekend's game. Matt, first off, how's things? All good. Thank you, mate. Yeah, been looking forward to this one. ⁓ yeah, I think you summed up fairly well. Should we call it Voltaz? Yeah, yeah, we're all done now. There we go. Two two-minute podcast, happy days. But no, it's it's it I I'll be honest, I came away from that game really disappointed. and it wasn't because I expect Champagne football every time we watch the Jills, because if you did, you'd be very disappointed most weeks. But we've been playing very positively of of late and we've looked capable of attacking teams and we've played with sort of a bit of verve and a bit of pace. And it just alm all seemed a little bit slow on Saturday. It was partly, I think, down to the way the opposition lined up. But I just felt like there was definitely something missing from from from the team ⁓ on Saturday. What what was your overriding emotion or reaction as you were leaving Priestfield on Saturday? Yeah, of course, frustrated that we've not won. And I think that's born out of the fact that that we turned up to Priestfield the previous two match days and saw us dismantle Bristol Rovers by three goals to nil and Trammere, we comfortably saw them off 2-0 the week before. ⁓ I think it's fair to say both of them games were fairly even up to a point in terms of the first half with it being goalless at half time in each fixture. But you felt like if we got it right in the second period of them games, we'd claim the points. And it probably felt like that again Saturday But it just never really happened, did it? We always say if we're in the game at half time, coming towards the reinamend. I know it's a cliche. But but you'd fancy us in in any type of half decent form, which we're in at the moment. We still are in that, even though we drew nil nil. ⁓ But yeah, just ideas were there, but final pass was off, final decision making weren't quite there. Maybe there was a little bit of a lack of understanding because it was a different type of front three. You think start of the season it was it was James Brophy, Ronan Hale and and Will Goodwin. Only one of them started the game. Along with Gareth McCleary and and Lamin Siller, both of whom did okay. But it it just felt like it was a a front three that's not played a lot of football together. ⁓ there wasn't quite that chemistry. Of course we've still got the ongoing issue with Brothy being shunted out to left wing back, which we don't get next Saturday. hopefully, as long as nothing goes wrong between now and the weekend. ⁓ again, I suppose it looks at ⁓ depends on how you look where you think or want we're gonna us to finish this season. If you if you want us to be a top three team or a a top seven side minimum, then you're gonna have the ump because people will say you should be beating Newport County at home. They've not won a football match on the road this season and I entirely get that. But if you're similar to us and and you think this season's all about progress and being a top half team or a top ten team, then of course there were positives to it. You you've got a reaction. It's the second time we've been beaten 3 0. Yep. He is pointing at his jumper for everyone who's listening. It says progress. ⁓ because he's doing that at me enthusiastically and forgot to say no one can see. Great podcasting by me there. Well done. Yeah. I've completely lost my train of thoughts. I apologize. I apologize. It was similar. If you if you want to be a top twelve team or a top ten team, then there were yeah, that's where I was. So we lost 3 0, opening day of the season, having been the better side for eighty two minutes. We've got a reaction. We went to Fleetwood and dug and got a nil nil the week after. We went to York last weekend. We're third best out of two for the majority of that game. ⁓ so we got reaction. We were back to being super solid d they've had a few chances. We've had a few half chances. Nothing I wouldn't say anything clear cut for any team, really. ⁓ so yeah, that's your positive as you've reacted to a defeat again. You've learnt from the mistakes you made the week before. You've picked up a f a third or fourth clean sheet of the season. Or Fleetwood, Bristol Rovers, Trammere, Newport. But the other side, of course, is that's now our fourth blank of the season as well, I think. So I guess it depends whether you're glass half full or glass half empty, or dare I say it, somewhere in the middle. Yeah. Yeah. I mean like there were a lot of things about that team on Saturday that felt a little bit kind of like patched up. You just have to look at Ronan Hale, right? He reminds me of the character from Police Academy who just keeps getting injured in new and creative ways. Like in that game, I think he was playing with a busted ankle, ⁓ bruised ribs and a and a broken nose, or a r a recently reset broken nose, ⁓ resplendent in his Batman mask that he had on. But he's far from ⁓ a hundred percent right now. And he's going out there and doing a job for the team. You've got ⁓ Lemin Silla who I'll be honest, I was really disappointed with his performance on Saturday. He just didn't didn't manage to get into the game at Do we think the referee impacted both of them players though, Sire, because of them ridiculously soft yellow cards early on in the game, which meant they couldn't go and press as they normally do. And then you chuck in the fact that one's coming back from concussion. I'm not making excuses before anyone jumps on us, but one's coming back from concussion and one, like you say, looks like he's auditioning for Phantom at the Opera at the moment. it's obviously going to have an impact. So Yeah, they weren't great. And maybe with other people coming back to fitness or coming into the team, and I'm sure we'll talk about a certain Mr. Eaves in a little while, there is then that opportunity to maybe give them a rest because Ronan is literally running himself into the ground at the moment, as others are, and but do we take that as a positive as well? If that had been February, March, Ronan now probably goes, No, I've got a busted ankle, my bribs ain't right, my ankle hurts, sorry, my nose hurts. I'll have the week off, Gaffer. I think the lad just wants to score goals. And I think every time he sees every Saturday as an opportunity to get on the pitch and score a goal. And and ⁓ it just hasn't gone his way of late. But I think he's had a bit of a rotating cast of strike partners, whether it's been him playing alongside Brofi behind a striker, which might be Goodwin one week, it might be Siller another week, it might be Tom Eaves the next week. So a little bit of continuity in that front three. will really benefit us in just as in the same way that our back three, even though if you took a poll of the Gillingham fan base at the start of the season and said, name your preferred back three, you probably wouldn't get those three names on on on the ⁓ the top of the pole. I don't think two of them would be in there. Right. But that's what we've had and they've been really solid. They've done a really good job as a unit pretty much from the minute they've been thrown together. They had they had a bit of an aberration at at York. But they were they were far from the only players who who who didn't deliver that day. So it wasn't necessarily specifically on them. In general, they've been very solid. But the thing that's been consistent has been team selection, continuity. And if we could establish that at the other end of the pitch, I think that's when we're gonna really start to see the likes of Hale ⁓ getting getting into the ⁓ getting into the goals a little bit more frequently. But you mentioned him just just a second ago. Let's talk about him now. Tom Eaves, I didn't expect him to play for as long as he did. I thought we'd throw him on with like five or ten to go. He came on with about twenty five to go, I think. and he looked fit as a fiddle. He didn't look like someone who needed to play his way into form. ⁓ he came on and immediately made an impact. And I whether that's as a combination of the fact that that ⁓ Silla didn't have his best game. So we looked a little bit like we didn't have anything too much up front in terms of a presence to hold the ball up or occupy the defenders. Soon as Eaves came on, that all changed. ⁓ and I think that especially with Will Goodwin being being a little bit injury prone at the moment, I don't see a reason why we wouldn't make Eves our starting number nine for the next few weeks and build around him and get the likes of Ronan Hale playing off him. And hopefully, as you say, with Connor McManus coming back. We could stick Brophy back in the ten as well. And then hopefully we can settle again. ⁓ and we've got a consistent forward line. 'Cause I think that's that's going to be the important thing moving forward. Absolutely. And I think like if you look at if you look at R eleven, you'd go through it, you'd say goalkeeper picks itself, three centre halves still pick themselves, Nick Freeman picks himself, James Brophy, Ronan Hale start his fit. So you're only looking at You're only looking at two or three where we've got question marks over positions at the moment. For me, and I'm contradicting myself a little bit here, and I totally understand that, because when the rumour first broke, I was probably in the no camp about Tom Eves. ⁓ purely because of the fact that we've signed people over thirty in the last few years and generally they've not worked. I mean, for every Brazil Dak we've had, we've had a Johnny Williams, we've had a Ben Reeves, we've had a Sam Vokes. And again, like I said on one of my shows, I'm not sitting here and saying the bad eggs, bad characters, but it's just not worked with too many that have come in the wrong side of the big three O. ⁓ But with the situation with Will Goodwin, like you say, and and Ronan keeps taking a whack every single week, it feels like at the moment, albeit not enough to keep him out of starting elevens, but certainly hindering him to a degree I think. It it was a no brainer when it became sort of more concrete news in the middle part of last week. I think Eves, Hale and Brophy probably will be our front three, ⁓ sooner rather than later. ⁓ Yeah, I think it's just got everything that you want in a in a in a players at the top end of the pitch. Tom can hold it up. Tom can still run in behind. He it didn't look any different in terms of appearance and how he played the game in that last twenty five minutes. First thing he did was come on, chase down and lost calls, chase down the keeper, which we'd not seen enough of because Silla and and Hale were either a combination of unfit or a yellow card, so they're having to play within themselves. ⁓ You've got Brother who's technically very good, can pick a pass, can slow it down, can speed the game up, and then hopefully that brings Ronan Ho'sk skill sets to the fore, which is a fox in the box sniffing out a chance out of nothing. ⁓ So yeah, I think then you're only looking at probably one or two positions that we're not sure on, and for me, I think it's still the middle of the park because Eli King, not to say that we're a one man team, but we've still not won a football match without Eli King starting and everything just looked a bit predictable in that area of the pitch on Saturday. Robbie McKenzie, to his credit, kept trying to drop and come and play nearer to Omar Beckles and the centre arsenal, get it off Ollie Wright. But Robbie's issue is his passing range is nowhere near the level of of Eli King, and that's not his fault. He's just a different type of central midfielder. So he was doing what we wanted him to do, but we're restricted on where he passes. A lot of our central midfielders Aside from your Dax and your Kings and your Brofies, who potentially play slightly higher up anyway, they just go in straight lines, either square or forwards. Whereas your Eli Kings, your Bradley Dax, your Joan Brophys create an angle. They see a pass that's not really there for anyone else. So that brings me on to the other debate. And you wrote an article about it. ⁓ and I agreed with it because I'd said it the other day. Do we look at at Bradley Dak almost becoming Eli King? in the middle of the far can we play him as a as a deep line playmaker as long as we get suitable energy around him in the middle of the pitch. Yeah. Yeah. And you can check that out on on the site now. And I kind of refer to him as like a deep line quarterback. For any any NFL fans out out there, they will know exactly what I'm referring to. Someone who will just takes command of the direction of play, directs traffic. They don't have to be the one making the lung busting runs forward. ⁓ and just surging into the box. That's that's that's the role for the likes of Harry Waldock to be playing, or an Armani Little, if he's in the team. They're the legs of the midfield, they're the engine room. But with Eli King and he didn't go charging around the place. He tended to hold that middle third of the pitch, if you like, just stay positionally disciplined, the width of the centre circle, between the two Ds on each in each box. Just plays in a rectangle. Just plays in a rectangle. Yeah, he's literally and and get the ball, give it simple, look to create angles, as you say, bring people into play, bring the wing backs forward, ⁓ and just be that person who's just sort of encouraging, probing, just just little dinky passes here, there and everywhere, just making things tick and also being of always being available for a pass. And that's what we missed. There were instances several times, in fact, I lost count. where we were just passing it square and backwards all the way through the game and it would be the defense and then it'd look for the midfield and there wouldn't be any because either everyone was sort of lining up in in in attack, waiting for a long ball to eventually be chipped forward, or there just wasn't anybody in the middle of the pitch. It was just vacated. It was a huge space. You needed somebody just to sit in there who could take a short pass, be on the half turn as they get the ball. And then start to move forward. And that's not everybody's game. You mentioned Robbie McKenzie tried to do that a little bit, but that's not his game. It is Bradley Dack's game. It is Eli King's game. And because Bradley Dack doesn't have that that that that extra yard, a pace that maybe he did during his first stint with us, where he could just sort of blast past a couple of players just with his speed off off the mark, he doesn't have that anymore. But what he has still got is his range of passing and his vision. And if you get him in a position where he's facing forwards and his back's not to goal, that's when he can really make a difference to a team. So that that was my sort of my argument for playing him there. The argument against it is that defensively there may be some question marks about how much he can contribute and about his legs. But you put the right people around him, and maybe you even revert to a rather have rather than having a two, you know, two tens behind a nine. You might have one and you might drop Brofi in a little bit. So you've then got you've then got a a a tighter triangle in midfield there. So th there's there's loads of different ways of playing it, but I think it's worth a go. I think once he's properly matched fit, and I don't think he's quite there yet, maybe in a week or two, if he's properly matched fit, I'd give him a run. I'd give him a run of games in that position, particularly when we're playing at home. ⁓ away against some of the some of the the tougher opposition. y we might want to go horses for courses a little bit. ⁓ but certainly when the onus is on us to attack, I think he would be he would be a real difference maker for us. And just just on a side note, I bumped into Eli King outside the stadium on Saturday. just gutted fella lad. Just gutted fella lad. You know, I just we don't know the official news on exactly what's happening yet. ⁓ but what we do know is that he's he's got a knee injury. We don't know how bad it is. He's waiting for official results to come back. But he didn't sound particularly positive. So we just hope that whatever it is, it isn't gonna isn't gonna result in the same length of layoff that he had last time and that you can bounce back as quickly as possible. But yeah, he's just moved into the area. He's had three great games. We've had three wins with him playing, and now he's in a position where he's gonna have to wait wait wait for the specialist to come back and then obviously he's got a a a road of rehabilit rehabilitation of some form, whether that's rest. Or whether that's another surgery, God forbid, I don't know. We'll have to see how that goes. But yeah, to be without him is is a real bind 'cause there aren't many players at this level of that quality. Luckily for us, I would say Bradley Dak on his day is one of those players. So that would be my argument for giving it a go in there. From going forwards, like you say, and I understand the question marks. But if you're playing three centre backs and you've got for what I'd say Nick Freeman, an intelligent right wing back, and Conor McManus limitless energy the other side. I think you're well covered in terms of protecting Ollie Wright. ⁓ and then if you add in whoever it is, ⁓ a Harry Waldock, a Zane Albert, or Robbie McKenzie or Amani Little in there. ⁓ I I think it could work. Because I think James Brophy works hard enough without the ball that you could almost like you said, you could almost become a three one, four two without the ball to make that triangle a little bit more compact and just nearer our gun. ⁓ and then You've got a combination of technical ability, creativity, and legs to get us up the pitch when we need to. It's certainly something I'd look at. Certainly with the Brighton under twenty-one's game coming up three days after Rotherham, that could be a perfect opportunity to just have another look at it. But for me, I think he's tailor-made to go in there now, because he can't press high. We know that. He can't do what James Brophy does. He can't do what Roland Howe does or or Will Goodwin was doing or Lamin Silla does. It's just not his game anymore. But if you can get him on the ball. Creating chances, keeping us ticking over, I think it'd still be a real asset in starting eleven. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's that's my thought on it as well. I mean, it's it's it's interesting because it you know, to some it might sound like we're trying to crowbar Bradley Dak into the team. That's not the case. It's just we've lost a player of genuine creativity and class on the ball. And yeah, we could just plug in another all action high energy midfield player to do that job instead. But we kind of did that on Saturday and we we we looked the poorer for it, I thought. And that's no dis that's no ⁓ disrespect to the lads who played. I actually thought Robin McKenzie had one of his better games of the season, to be honest. I thought he played very well. And Harry Wall. He probably had to do two people's work in there a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. And I you know, so it was just that he isn't the same sort of player. So but just talking of ⁓ You know, mentioned a couple of other names there. Someone who I wanted to wanted to talk about is someone who kind of divided opinion a little bit at the start of the season, or certainly within the first game or two. I think he's been one of our best performers overall, and that's Nick Freeman. The lad has been absolutely super playing out of position. He's a midfield player. He's he plays in central midfield normally. He's been asked to do a job at right wing back and I'd love to know what his ⁓ distance stats are 'cause he seems to cover every blade of grass on that right hand side every game. And ⁓ you know, he's he's dangerous with his crossing. And now we've got a big lad on the pitch who could potentially get on the end of some of these. We could see a few more assists coming from him ⁓ you know, as as the season progresses. But I think Freeman has been one of the real success stories so far. It's been outstanding. And and I've seen a few bits going around on social media role since the Chesterfield game. I thought he was absolutely fine before then. We had an off first half. He had an off first half at I wasn't say at Salt of Gate. But ⁓ again, that's what happens in league two. And he can do better for the goal. He knows that. He's been around the block. He's played enough games to know that he could have got out there quicker. But I think either side of that, and even the second half in that game, like you say, he's got to be covering ten K. every single game. I know I looked last week or the week before and I'm sure he was in the top two or three in terms of us. And I think he was in the top ten or twenty in terms of distance covered in the entire division. And you then chuck in an assist every three games on average at the moment. We have and I'm gonna go off with a tangent now, Sy, we have a lad called Sam Tabarres, apparently, who seems to be a right wing back in the mould of Connor McManus the other side. Is there a case to say that one Tabares is back? Nick Freeman plays next to Bradley Dak with James Brophy in front. Technically he's good enough in there, he's composed on the ball. He likes a tackle. People are probably moan that we've got two people in there who've had ACLs, but people like to moan. It's How key are these wing backs is is weird. How key are these wing backs to what we do? Yeah. Yeah. And you know, I'd I I say this with my hands and yeah, you know, I am not an enormous fan of the three three five two or three four two one formation. Anyway, I don't like playing wing backs as a as a general thing, but with the players we've got, it works and we've we've we do have a system. It feels like we've recruited for the system as well. ⁓ and we've recruited players who can operate in different positions and and fill in in different places and we've been we've we've been fortunate for that because we've needed to do that. You know, James Brofie, I've got the impression that Brofi was originally signed to play the left hand side role. And I think we ended up playing him ⁓ further forward and he he was such a revelation that it that's that's become his position now. But ⁓ Nick Freeman certainly wasn't signed to play right wing back. ⁓ But he's he's been put in that position due to Tabarres being out. and he's been he's been superb. He really has. And if and when Tabarres is fit and ready to go, if he's anything like cut from similar cloth to ⁓ Conor McManus, then I would definitely look to get him in the team, but I wouldn't want to lose Nick Freeman's energy from the team either. So again, we talk about you know, you mentioned the ⁓ the EFL. trophy game. ⁓ is it trophy or cups? Trophy, isn't it? coming up. Maybe, maybe that's a game to give Freeman a run in the middle of the pitch. Just a just to sort of you know dress rehearsal before a bit further down the line when maybe Tabares comes in. But yeah, I mean you wouldn't drop Nick Freeman. That is for s you know that is for certain in the same way that you're he's one of the undroppables at the moment. Yeah. So you know I think He was mine man in a match on Saturday. I think the gate I think the sponsors gave it to Beckles, is that right? I think Beckles got it. I think so. And I went I went Ollie Wright. Which but yeah, I think they were probably the three. Some people a lot of people said Waldock. I I didn't think Waldock was as good as what I've read on social media. I thought first half particularly and it's great to see a young player Simon wants to get on and wants to be beyond the forward players, but I thought he just kept doing it relentlessly when the game situation didn't need it. Similarly to Andy Smith went and stood on the other side of the halfway line, which I'm great. I want your centre back to be brave and try and get into the midfield areas to create space and overloads. But he went and stood on Nick Freeman. And the trouble was we then didn't get the ball, so Gareth McCleary went out there. So you essentially had three stood as a right wing back. And then you just had this massive chasm in the middle of the park where Robbie McKenzie was just looking around and thinking, I need to get a taxi to find a teammate here. And that's where they kept playing through the middle of us and getting into dangerous areas. So Waldock not saying he was bad. But there has been a drop off for me in the last two games since that man of the match against Bristol Rovers, but that's to be expected. He's a kid. ⁓ it's it's still nice conundrums to have. ⁓ and to to be tenth at the risk of repeating myself and three points off top after nine games, again with everything that we're still having to contend with. Yes, Saturday was frustrating, but that is a hundred percent a game that we get beat in last season. Yeah. Yeah. I mean the last five minutes of the game I was turned to some of the lads I sat with and said l th this time last year we'll be conceding in a minute. You know, 'cause it was just there are they they got a couple of set pieces late on, didn't they? And it like, ⁓ this would be this would be just like us to let one in at this point. But it's not been just like us this season. We have we have defended a lot better. ⁓ and What you make of the ⁓ Jack Daly substitution out of curiosity? Because for me it just seemed a waste of time unless there was an injury. Because people have said old Dobbs was on a booking, but Hale had been on a booking since about ten minutes and he was still out there. I just did it just it just seemed needless to me, and it seemed no coincidence from my point of view that straight after that Jack Daly came on and got booked, ironically, and then we gave away three, free kicks on the edge of our box. It just seemed to unsettle us for for no real reason. Yeah, I mean where I sit. I was kind of well placed to watch that that that battle with with Dobbs and and their winger whose name completely escapes me. ⁓ but he he was he was very lively there, number twenty three. But ⁓ also one of the worst dives I've seen at Priestfield in many a year. I don't know what the ref was playing at. Mind you, I don't know what the ref was playing at in general, but we'll we'll talk about that in a sec. But Dobbs looked towards the end of that second half, he looked like he was running running through an injury. He looked like he'd taken a knock. ⁓ and he was struggling against a lad who already had a yard on him for pace and I just I just think that I think that it was a a bit of a self ⁓ well not self preservation bit of a preservation thing for for ⁓ Ainsworth to get Dobbs off before potentially you know he gets himself gets himself sent off or injured because he was he was having to do a tur yeah. But ⁓ Daly hasn't convinced me yet. ⁓ he he's come on he He was very lightweight at Yorker. Defender went went through one of his challenges and then shook him off to score. It might it might have been their third goal. ⁓ which for a centre back, you shouldn't be letting that happen. ⁓ he is only a kid, he is only a teenager, but physically I don't know how ready he is yet for league football. He's gonna have to learn the hard way. But yeah, on the ball, he looks tidy. And the thing I did notice with him in the final few minutes was when he was actually ⁓ in the opposition penalty area, he was a pain in the backside for them. He was getting on the end of stuff, causing a few problems, attacks the ball well when he's in the opposition box. It was some of that su some of that meat and potatoes defending ⁓ side of the game is perhaps where we maybe need to see a little bit more from him. But we'll only see that with games. But I wouldn't replace Logan Dobbs with him at this stage, that's for sure. It both nineteen years ⁓ nineteen years of age. I would say Dobbs is the most solid pick as it stands right now. But ⁓ but yeah Let's not labour the point too much. But the referee on Saturday. and I can say this in in confidence because or sorry, with confidence because he was terrible for both teams. Absolute like you know you got a duff ref when both teams can legitimately turn around and say there's a game changing decision that he didn't give for us and both teams had one. You know, Omar Beckles got away with you know, an unbelievable. He literally laughed his head off as he got up. Like 'cause it was right in front of my eye line where it was. Because he was running towards me. And there'd been a couple of bookings just before then that were really soft. And then So very little, yeah. And then that, which is probably orange at best, because I think if the bloke just skips past him, he's running in towards our goal. Yeah, Beckle's definitely got away with one. So then maybe the later one, ⁓ maybe the referee realised he'd he'd dropped the proverbial one and decided that he'd keep it eleven eleven. But ⁓ both decisions are absolutely s I mean, I didn't see the handball from where I sat, but having look at the replays online, it's it's it's a foul by the keeper after he's handled it outside his box. How Tom Eaves can be penalised, I don't know, his feet don't even raise, he's just running along with a natural motion and gets absolutely clumped into. I think if that's say a Harry Waldock running through on goal or a a Ronan Hale, someone more slight of stature, they probably end up rolling twenty yards and maybe the decision's different. But because Tom Eaves is built like the proverbial we know, ⁓ he didn't really move. ⁓ But yeah, astonishing decisions. Yeah, it's is incredible. I mean, like the goalkeeper knew straight away that he'd he'd had a he'd had an absolute mare and just invented an injury to to sort of to go down to spare his blushes. Like he went down with embarrassment more than anything else. But it was ⁓ I think as you say, if that had been Ronan Halen, he'd been knocked sideways through the air, which is what most players would have done. But it's only because Tom Eves is six foot three, you know, sort of thirteen stone or fourteen stone, you know, solid. ⁓ he j the keeper bounced off him and and it made it look but it made it look worse on on the goalkeeper. But yeah, I mean it's a red car offence. It's a red card offence. Two red car offences, isn't it? If we just one for the hand and the one to smash it into Tom. But yeah, it was ⁓ beggar's belief, I think is probably the politest way of putting both them. What was your view on the ⁓ the potential penalty on on ⁓ Eve's because everyone was going ⁓ well I'm not at that end of the pitch but everyone was absolutely doing their doing their pieces over it. He was being held in the box Sadie like guide him in sort of almost like a full Nelson just held him back and ⁓ I'm gonna go full arse and Venga because I don't recall it. I'll be completely honest. You did you did you did not see the incident. No. I don't remember it. And I've gone through footage obviously to do my matchday review. I So unless I was grabbing a mouthful of drink or Yeah, it was a lot a a lot of people after the game were saying just absolute clear pen that he was he's being he had his arms held back and he was being held right back and I don't know. I haven't I'm gonna have to watch it. I haven't got the full game replay yet on Jill's TV. I'm gonna have to watch that. But ⁓ I can't remember if if it was a corner or just a cross from the right, but I think that was the instant across comes in. He's basically got a free header and that he was just like grabbed and dragged out of the way of it and held back from The only one I remember in the box was the one that Dakie went up for and tried to head it, and the defender just flicked it away from him, and Tom was about a yard behind, and Tom sort of put his hands up because he knew that if that had come over the defender's head, he was just nodding it in for one nil. But ⁓ nope, sorry. No comment. There we go. Well, there we go. If the ref didn't see it and you did see it, then maybe, you know. And if it was a foul and a blatant penalty, then we know the ref wouldn't have given it anyway. So Well, this is this is the thing. This is the thing. I mean, I don't mind if if if referees are Consistent. I mean, he was consistent. He was consistently inconsistent, wasn't he? So it was but like when it comes to giving out cards, that's the thing that I don't understand. It's like set your stall out. If you give a a yellow card for a particular type of challenge, and then we see that challenge again later in the game, you need to give that yellow card. And and there were but also he was giving yellows for so little. Didn't McCleary get wiped out by the Newport fans? Like sort of ankle shin height. It wasn't even a free kick. And then about two minutes later, I can't remember, was it Beckles might have got a yellow card for a high foot when the bloke sort of ducked down to knee height? I think it was Silla. I think it was Silla got Was it Silla, yes, it might have been, yeah. We've all got cleared out of our box, you might be right. And there was another one, I don't if I don't know if Mackenzie got booked for it, but it was towards the end of the game and it was in front of our own box. And literally his boot was sort of below shoulder height and he got blindsided by a a Newport player who tried to nip in in front of him, stooping to head the ball. ⁓ and ⁓ he got he got a set of shoelaces in the teeth. Unfortunate, a foul for definite, but you know, not a yellow card. I don't know if he got booked for it, but I I got the impress I I think he got booked for it. But it was just some strange just strange decisions. And the other thing that does me, I I'm trying not to be in in rant mode here. But I I'm sure and I I'll have to talk to a a qualified referee about this, a league ref. ⁓ I used to be a qualified ref many, many years ago. But are the assistant referees or linesmen as we like to call them are they not allowed to flag for anything except for ball in and out of playing offside? I'm thinking for people that are obviously listening to this, because I'm glad you brought it up because I watch every league game at home and I think what is the point of them being there? Th there's a decision that gets made that's blatant right in front of ⁓ and they look at the referee like they're looking at their dad for approval. Like waiting and like it's almost like you think they're gonna put their hand up and go, Sir, am I allowed to make this c I I don't get it at all. I've said it for years, you might as well just prop a flag up over the far side. And if it's off side, the referee just presses a button and the flag goes up because I I it baffles me every single game. that they just have so little impact on the game or input into the game, I wanna say. They always have an impact in the game and it's never usually good. But ⁓ Yeah, there seems to be very little input. It's almost like Sunday League or kids football where you used to just have a player or a parent running the line and you'd get told right, you just give throw ins and corners and I'll do the rest. Just ball in and out of playing offside please, Lino. Yeah. And and and that's but I I wonder whether it's because we're in League Two, 'cause I remember back in the days of the championship and all of that, you know They you know, lines linesmen would or assistant referees we have to call them, don't we? Would flag for fouls, they'd flag for all sorts of things. I distinctly remember the ⁓ Medway stand getting Jermaine Dafoe sent off against West Ham. where we just were winding him up constantly. He went in late and we we were just chipping away at him and the linesman straight away with a flag. Everyone was on a lino. Lino's up with a flag, Defoe gets sent sent to the dressing room. ⁓ but I don't mind if they're told don't give everything, but if you see a clear offence and I haven't given it, help me out. Put the flag up. You know, like and it's like they can't even do simple things like blatant, like conclusive throwing decisions. It's just it just again, it beggars belief. Like what are they there to do? I don't get it at all. I don't I don't, but I I'm wondering whether it's partially the whole sort of we have got the ⁓ You know, we've got the trainees or the ones that aren't good enough, basically, in at at at this level. It's almost like they know VAR exists in the game, so they're waiting for VAR to help ⁓ out and then they go, ⁓ it we haven't got it in league two, so I've actually got to do my job and actually think for myself. I can I I can I can speak for, you know, the first three blocks of the Midway stand. We're very positive with our feedback for lines and we like to help them out whenever we can. So You know, whenever there's any decision that needs making, we give them a little helping hand every now and again. They some some of them choose not to listen, but hey, you know, we can only offer our Some of them I would say all, but yeah. ⁓ But ⁓ but no, it you know, I just felt like and I kind of jokerly put up a tweet on the three six five X account saying this might not I don't know if it's the worst ref we've had this season, but he's definitely in the top one. I just thought that Start to finish he was poor. You see some refs they have like a a mad ten minutes or a crazy half or he was just rat poor for ninety minutes, I thought. I just very strange. But what I will say is he was poor for both teams, so I don't think he cost us the game or you know I think I think you can you can you can play those off against each other so many incidents. We can't sit here and go, Well they should be down to ten men and we should play the last ten minutes against ten because he should be Yeah. You know, getting a free kick because they can argue and say, well, potentially they should have played the last hour against ten men. So it's ⁓ Yeah, yeah. But he wasn't the reason we we didn't win. Absolute toilet for for both sides. So in that sense, I suppose you can't complain too much. At least he was consistently rubbish for all of us. Well that's it. That's it. Fingers crossed we get a better one on Saturday. We're away at Rotherham United who I checked the league table. I'm surprised that they're they're actually lower than we are. I thought they were doing okay, but then they're not doing as well. They've They've only won one out of their last six, which is slightly surprising. ⁓ very small squad, I think. Took took ages to start recruitment. So I've got good players, but not got enough players, I'd say, at the moment. Yeah, so that's I mean, that's always ⁓ always a tricky away trip, Rotherham United. Traditionally it's been a it's it's it's been a tricky a tricky away day for us. But you know, w I think we've got players coming back. ⁓ we're taking on a team that's got a d a a proven finisher in the side in in in Paul Mullen who is still doing the business at his age, but I think over over the sort of the one to eleven, we should be in a position to go there with three points on our mind rather than containment. Absolutely. And I think I looked again at the the stats and we did a little bit of average position last week. I think our next three games are sixteenth, seventeenth and twenty third and I I said to Ollie at half time on on Saturday, is this is this performance that bad or is it just, you know, traumatic ⁓ October Association that we think it's worse than it is. We said before there's loads of this group that don't have any sort of scar tissue or baggage in terms of this October curse, and I'm putting that very much in inverting commas for people that are listening and not can't see me. ⁓ there's no reason why we can't go to Robrum and Akronton and pick up something from both of them games and and then get something against Port Vale. If if ever there was an October for me that that gives us a chance to put this so called curse to bed, I think this is it. We avoided defeat on Saturday. Then like I say, we go to Rotherham sixteenth, we go to Accrington seventeenth. We then host Port Vale who are really, really struggling. You'd say the only really, really difficult one, and I know football's played on paper and at the grass on paper. The only really difficult one in this next set of fixtures is probably Grimsby and they've lost their last two. So we've got nothing to fear. We're still gonna have to go up there and work hard and and earn the right. But yeah, I can't see why we can't come back from South Yorkshire on Saturday with at least a point. And the other thing is we are gradually getting players back now. You know, we obviously we've we've we know we've we've lost Eli King for a period of time to be determined, but we are getting players back. Armani Little came on, got some minutes. Bradley Dak came on, got some minutes, Tom Eves is in the squad. He got some invaluable minutes. Exactly. And Zayn Alburas will be back from suspension soon. Connor McManus back from international duty, Sam Tabares not a million miles away from being available for selection. ⁓ things are coming things are gradually coming together in terms of the squad and availability and the big headache's gonna be how Gareth Ainsworth eventually settles on his actual first choice team. ⁓ and that's it, and even the long team mid choice. It's only really king that we've lost recently, like A Biro, as frustrating as it was, he played fifteen minutes, so we don't know how good or bad he was gonna be. Obviously we wish him a swift recovery, but there wasn't a lot to go on. Gordon looked immense for half an hour, but we've dealt without that him for the essentially all of the season, bar thirty minutes. And we've dealt without Kadim Harris for all but one and a half games of the season. So we're doing okay. And like you say, there's gonna be a few more very positive headaches, hopefully, to Gareth to have in in the next few days and and certainly in the income over. the incoming weeks and months. Yeah. I think the one thing that we need to solve is that midfield creativity problem. I think if we can f if we can find a solution to that, we've got the players everywhere else who have established themselves and have have been largely pretty good for us so far this season. We're a League Two football team. We're going to fluctuate. We're going to have days where we look pretty good. We're going to have days where we don't look very good. But on on the whole our our baseline seems a lot higher than last season. ⁓ just based on performances and, you know, I I think that if we could keep things going, we're maybe get a coup if we can get clean sheets in our away games ⁓ in in October, whether we're drawing them or winning them, and we pick up out, you know, the wins at home, we're gonna be nicely set as we head into November. But r ⁓ Rotherham United on Saturday is the next one. I'm looking forward to seeing how we do in that one. If we can get a win in that A draw and a win after losing three nil at York would be would be an excellent, excellent response from this team. But ⁓ we shall see how it all progresses. Matt, have you got anything else you want to chuck into the pot before we wrap this one up? No, I think we've covered it. We've done well to make forty two minutes worth of content out of that Doward nil nil draw. So I think we deserve a round of applause. No, I'm only joking. ⁓ No, about to jump on and do the league two hour. ⁓ That'll be out obviously by the time this comes out. And then yeah, just looking forward to Rotherham so match preview out Wednesday as normal and then on the coach get a lay-in at the weekend. Alarm doesn't go off till 6 15. So that'll be quite nice. And yeah, looking forward to a trip, first trip to the New York Stadium. Obviously it won't be as full as it probably has been in previous seasons when they've been in the championship, but still be nice to see a a bigger ground and and a new ground. So yeah, looking forward to it. And ⁓ you can watch the League Two Hour and all of Matt's content on YouTube at Jills in the Blood. Check out Jills365.news for all our coverage. We have a free newsletter for everybody and anybody who wants to partake in some of our our coverage completely for free. We've got two emails per week. The hat trick comes out every Friday with your weekend preview. We've got a new email that comes out every Monday now called the one two. And that recaps everything that we've just seen over the weekend. So it bookends your footballing weekend. The hat trick leads in, the one-two leads out, and ⁓ we'll keep you busy throughout the week with plenty of content. Plus this very podcast, Blood Sweat and Jills, and Jills 365 voice notes, the latest episode of which dropped a day late, but it dropped. It's now live. You can get that on all podcasting platforms as well as on the Jills 365 website. That's about all we've got for you on Blood, Sweat and Gills this week. We drew on Saturday. It is not the end of the world, ladies and gentlemen. We have Rodham United away on Saturday. Can we start to build an unbeaten run as we go through the month of October? Could it happen? Will it happen? We'll talk about it next weekend. Enjoy the match on Saturday, ladies and gentlemen, and until then, up the gills.