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Beaten by a better side on the day | York City 3-0 Gillingham · Blood, Sweat & Gills

• Simon Head: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Blood, Sweat and Jills. I'm Simon from Jill365. He is Matt from Jills into Blood TV and we're going to talk about a defeat today. We haven't had to do that too often. Only once before have we had to do that in the ⁓ in the league this season. So this is gonna be a little bit of a different show based on a lot of you know compared to a lot of the ones we've done so far. But I'm kind of interested to see where this one goes. Matt, you were there on on Saturday. First off, before we launch into the the whole game side of it, talk to me about the venue, about the stadium and about York. I mean, as away days go, on paper, it's a s it sounds like a pretty good one. Yeah, really enjoyed it. ⁓ and I know we have the old cliche and we all do as as lower league football fans. It was a good day out, ruined by ninety minutes of football in the middle. But as far as out of town facilities go, I thought it was really, really impressive. Of course it's still new and it's a bit shiny, so it doesn't have that character that older football grounds have. But in terms of amenities and stuff that you can do and stuff that you want and stuff that you require, I thought it was really, really good, really smart. ⁓ everything was easy to access. It was busy but it felt like you had plenty of space and could get served and Yeah, just really, really enjoyed it. I thought it'd be ⁓ I think Nick said on the the match day live when we was doing the introduction to the team news and we sort of discussed it and he said, Yeah, it'd be the the blueprint, I think, for a lot of sort of clubs our size that have like a ten thousand capacity or so. ⁓ if you d do wanna look at moving to just outside of town and building a a multi purpose football facility thought it was really good, yeah. In terms of the the actual club as well, like they've they've obviously gone through some some tough times and they've bounced back now and and have worked their way through the the National League. Getting out of the National League is is a real feat, you know, to actually do that and because it's it's incredibly hard. You know, you don't they don't really get the amount of promotion places that they really should, given the quality of the football. They should have they should have three three up. There's no doubt about it. But that that isn't that isn't how it's been. ⁓ What was the general sort of the sort of ⁓ the vibe around the around the York City fans? I don't know if you got to chat to any of them before the game or I well, obviously I know you did a preview show, but I mean whether you got to chat to any on match day, but it feels like from a distance looking at the club, it feels like one that's really sort of on the up and up and they all seem to be rowing in the same direction. Yeah, I I think so, generally. Of course. The only spanner that got jucked in the proverbial works was a few weeks ago when their owner decided to sack Stuart Maynard, their manager, who'd got him promoted with a record amount of points, I think a record amount of wins, a record amount of goals, only four defeats in forty six league games. So that was the only sort of negative, I suppose, that you could sort of detect. But judging by what I saw, what I heard, what I've seen watching ⁓ around the grounds vlog, 'cause he was there as well. It it seems that they're coming round to Scott Lindsay. ⁓ And I think I mentioned on the preview I felt for him when he took the job because he's a bloke that's looking for work. And he was coming in into a a lose lose situation at the beginning. Because if he wins football matches, ⁓ it's Maynard's players. If he loses football managers ⁓ matches, then he's not up to task. But he's still got to coach him and he's still got to set him up correctly. He's still got to get people in the right positions. And they were absolutely phenomenal Saturday. As as bad as we were or under par. But similarly to what we spoke about last week, Sy, where people said, ⁓ Bristol Rovers were poor, and if you looked at their reaction to us beating them 3 0, we all said, but we made them look poor. York City made us look like a bang average team at the weekend. They were really, really good from start to finish. They got a bit of luck with the opener because the finish bounces into the floor and loops in. But they didn't look back from there. And in truth, aside from Fifteen minutes just after half time where we got the ball into the final third a few times through Brophy and McCleary. We didn't lag glove on them. Did not get near ⁓ at all. They were brilliant. Yeah. And it's one of those where it's very easy we when we've got our Jules tinted specs on, we only look at it through that through that sort of prism as as a Jules fan. It's like either we're great or we're terrible. You know, it's not always as black and white as that. And although from from what I'd watched I watched it live on on on Sky. we looked very panicky, which was the complete opposite to how we've looked in previous games. Now, was that just the fact that we'd game planned for a certain approach from York and they clearly weren't playing the way that was game planned for? Because it looked to me like they were hitting a lot of long stuff early on. Looked like they were particularly looking to hit the left back area. And it looked like a concerted it reminded me of when we played Bromley and they battered us, ⁓ doing very, very similar tactics, very high speed, high press, passing the ball around, but then hitting a long one diagonally across to sort of that left back area and really getting at it. And ⁓ it had great you know, obviously getting that early goal is massive, you know. If we hold on and I was explaining to someone the other day, from like the 35th minute. To the 70th minute, it was a pretty competitive game of football. ⁓ in that span where there weren't any goals in that span. And we were still second best. You know, no let's just make no bones about it. But we were in the game. And we, you know, w there was always that possibility that we would maybe get something. But we let one in early. ⁓ and we looked a little bit sort of skittish at the back, and it wasn't what we were used to seeing. I mean, what was the What was the reaction in the stands when we went behind so early? Yeah, disappointed, of course. We don't like conceding football goals and ⁓ don't like conceding goals and losing football matches, sorry. But ⁓ I think I said to Nick and Nick said to I'd rather they score in the first two minutes at nil-nil than the last two minutes. At least we had plenty of time to to get back in the football match at that point. Of course it didn't work out that way. ⁓ a few people at half time you could hear were talking and and what you see on social media and said, is this gonna be a game where we nick a completely undeserved one all? ⁓ and if we're looking for positives, I guess that is the positive because if that had been us last season, we'd have been four and five down at half time. Like and I they hit the post and they missed a sitter, but we found a way to stay in the football match and keep ourselves in touch. ⁓ but yeah, it would definitely have been undeserved if we got anything from the game because we were we were third best, I'd say, at some stages of that com ⁓ comfortably, yeah, third out of two. ⁓ But it happens. How many times have we said it's League Two? They're not going to be perfect all the time. We just had a day where too many were off it and they'd had a day where pretty much everyone was really on it. And ⁓ when you're coming up against a team like that that's that's now one, I think, thirteen on the bounce at home in the league, stretching back to January last year, I think was the last time they dropped points at the L N E R. ⁓ it was always gonna be tough. ⁓ then the injuries obviously compounded that as well and ⁓ The way I sort of looked at it, 'cause we sat here a couple of weeks ago or so and we had two injuries in the first half against Rochdale. It probably helped us in a way, 'cause it E like in on the pitch, and suddenly we looked like we was a team that could control the tempo of the game and keep the football and take care of it. But no disrespect to Rochdale, they're not in the class of York City at all. And them two changes at the weekend absolutely killed us. The fact that Will Goodwin came off was bad enough. The fact that we didn't have Lamin Silla because of concussion meant that we had no light relight replacement to come on and be a physical threat up top to occupy their centre halves. This time it was E Light King that looks to have been withdrawn with I mean, I'm hoping and praying, but it it looks a serious knee injury, unfortunately. ⁓ and then we became a midfield of battlers, unfortunately. Because we had Albarez, ⁓ McKenzie and Waldock, I think it what who was it Waldock that was up there? Waldock was in there, ⁓ Mackenzie was in there, Albrus was struggling 'cause unfortunately Waldock was was fairly anonymous and as much as we praised him last week he was phenomenal. That was comfortably his worst. He looked lost ⁓ Saturday and as did Logan Dobbs look very lost at times as well. But they'll learn from that and they'll come on from it. ⁓ but yeah, we suddenly looked like a team that was playing for set plays, that was looking to stay in the football match than rather than trying to take control of the football match. You then got a couple in the fact that James Brophy stuck out on the left. He was essentially a left back, not a wing back, because Joe Felix, that side, was so quick and so proactive. But yeah, back to your original question, which I'm not sure I answered, I think they probably did catch us out because I think we was probably setting up to play against the side that were going to try and pass through us and pass round us. And without risking, like I'm about to advertise the bear hunt, they went over us. ⁓ And it had happened before they scored. So twice inside four minutes we got caught out down that side. That could have been twofold. Number one, they know James Profi's not a natural defender. And number two, if you're pushing him back into his own third, he can't be a threat the other way as well. And the goal's probably a bit of a bonus for him so early. ⁓ but yeah, we just we just never recovered from that. Never recovered from the two injuries. And by the end, we had No centre forward rumours doing the rounds now that Ronan Hale might have cracked a rib. So ⁓ has anyone got Tom Eve's number? Well, that is that is it now, is it? I mean someone does have Tom Eve's number. Andy Hessentyler has Tom Eve's number. I believe he was sitting with him at Priestfield our last home game against Bristol Rovers, so wouldn't be a surprise. I was I I was all for bringing him in anyway, just to add another lump to put up front. ⁓ whether you're looking to defend a lead and you want a bit more aerial presence in the box, or whether you just want a bigger presence up front so the ball just doesn't just keep coming back at you, which is largely what happened on Saturday. He would be a no brainer for me. ⁓ hopefully he's match fit. That would be the only question, Mark. but we would need we because we we would we'd probably need to play him pretty much straight away. I think Silla probably will be okay for Saturday. Silla should be fine for the weekend, yeah. So we'll have him and then obviously we're waiting on the other two. But if it's muscular for Goodwin, I'd say he misses it, and then you're obviously gonna have to wait on some sort of scan, I imagine, for Ronan. Yeah. I mean, for me, the biggest the biggest question is gonna be our midfield now because Eli King is kind of a one of one player in our in our squad, in that he's the one guy who can put his foot on the ball and just calm everything. and pick a pass. You mentioned a minute ago about having a midfielder battlers, which have you having battlers in your team is always a good thing, but you don't want all battlers. You need a little bit of class, you need someone to put the foot on the ball and direct traffic. And that's what Eli King did really, really well. Who takes up that role? Do we bring Brofi in to play that sort of role? Because to me he's probably the player most capable of doing that. But that then gives you an issue on your left hand side. Do you ask Jack Daly to have a go at left wing back? I know we've got ⁓ Gareth McCleary who could play wide. That would be me at the moment. And I put that on social media. And as good as the start's been, we've not won a football match without Eli King in the team up until ⁓ Saturday. So that's going to be another thing that we're going to have to tick off. Because he came on at Rochdale. Then we won three on the bounce. Then he went off early against York. And I'm not saying we folded because there were other circumstances where obviously playing the last twenty minutes with ten men didn't help. And we were still in the game at that point. But that's going to be another thing we're going to have to overcome. ⁓ Bradley Dack is probably your only other player that can really get his foot on the ball, but he's not match fit. So I don't think you could start him. ⁓ he did play deeper against Cambridge in the trophy game last week, so maybe that's something we look at moving forward, but I wouldn't say that's probably the answer Saturday because of the fact that he's not played enough football. For me, you get Brophy in the ten in some guys, whether we play two tens and the centre forward or a one ten and two centre forwards, depending on fitness. I'd play Gareth McCleary as left wing back. Yes, you're obviously gonna have to ask him to be defensive at times, but You've got the security of three central defenders and you've also got the security of two midfielders in front. So I think we'd be okay. In a game as well, I have to say that if we want to be taken seriously this season, we should be bossing the game against Newport. No disrespect to them. But they've taken one point from twelve on the road this season. So if we want to be a top half, top ten team, Newport are probably a type of side that we need to be controlling the game against and and dare I say beating. But the caveat is October starts in two days and we don't need to talk about that anymore. But no, in short, for me, Brophy back in the ten with either another one plus a centre forward, McCleary to left wing back, and then I'd probably say Harry Waldock next to Robbie McKenzie. So you get one that can just be your battler in Robbie, and then you've got your box to box in Harry and then your sort of stardust in James Brophy, who Again, I hasten to add, works very hard out of possession as well. So you'll get that work rate from him as well. I've got a sneaking suspicion we're gonna see Armani Little on Saturday. I think I think there's been some noises that are being made and I just have a feeling that we're gonna see him on Saturday, which I think will will certainly add some industry to the middle of the pitch, but he's also been all he's been away for a while. So we just hope and the last time he came back in after a month out, he broke down again. So for me that'd be silly. Considering how quickly players are dropping again at the moment. It just seems every time we say, ⁓ the treatment room's clearing up, the gods go, No, it's not. We'll strike two more down. It's incredible how it's it's all panned out this season. Like you you know, you expect to have, you know, a few knocks here and there, and if you're unlucky, you might lose someone to a long term injury. But to lose to lose three This could be four. Possibly four. This could be four. Yeah, we're waiting on news on Eli, but Looking at the way he went down, it was another one of those studs caught in the turf, no one near him. ⁓ it never looks good when you see injuries like that. So you just you just hope that it's more of a s a sprain rather than a rather than a rupture. You know, you don't want you don't want ⁓ you don't want him to have to go under the knife again. That would be I mean, especially for him. He's just come back off a year, got himself fit, played some games, come in, made made a big career move, leaving Cardiff to ⁓ to join us. got into the team, was really having an eff a positive effect, and then to have this happen, I mean, you know, you you know, your thoughts go out to the lads. So you just hope that whatever it is, he's able to mentally be able to deal with it first off, ⁓ and it not bring him down too much and then for him to just get through it as as speedily and as thoroughly as possible. Last thing we want to be doing is rushing people back. So but yeah, it's it's interesting. Like I was thinking my initial thought with the left hand side was that I would rather have Gareth McCleary in one of the ten roles. ⁓ just because I think he gives you a lot more going forward than he does going back. However, you look at how we started the season, we played Kadeem Harris in that left wing back role, and he's not really a defender. He's more of a winger than a than a wing back, really. So clearly Ainsworth was more than happy to have a forward thinking player in that role. And it's only been since his injury and the emergence of Conor McMannis that we've had more of a defender in that position. ⁓ and obviously with him on international duty, Bros has a guy out there. So I think we're okay. I think we're okay. We can we can move things around, but I agree with you that we need Brofi in the middle of the pitch because he's the one guy now that we've got who can put the put his foot on the ball and make things happen. You put him out on the left, he's he's too easily sidelined, he's too easily kept out of the kept out of the game. You know, one just just pinning him back with a quick winger basically nullified him ⁓ on Saturday. So Yeah, and of course if we play well against Newport and we're the team on the front foot, then it might not be such an issue like it wasn't against Bristol Rovers and it wasn't against Roxdale for the last half an hour. But certainly when you come up against a good side away from home where the onus is on that team to to go and do the pressing and be on the front foot, he I still thought he was one of our best players. I'm gonna say that. I thought his defensive work was outstanding and he was at the forefront along with McCleary and probably Nick Freeman when we had that spell. just after half time for ten, fifteen minutes, they were the three that looked like they was most likely to make something happen. But the trouble we had was by the sort of sixty fifth minute, I think when we made that last triple change, every time a ball went into the box, you had it was literally no centre forwards on 'cause Hal had gone off, Goodwin had gone off. Goodwin's becoming a a problem now and a frustration for me because he just keeps breaking down, which we were warned about. ⁓ Which is a real shame 'cause we both agreed that that when he's been at it, he's he's looked a handful, albeit hasn't scored a goal yet. But it's too early to say it, but I fear we might have another Josh Andrews Mark II, sadly. I really hope that's not the case. The worry with him has been that he's broken down early in these games as well. It's been like in the first twenty minutes of games now. Is that a warm up issue? You know? Are are are there are there issues with regard to how he's preparing for these matches? Is he fully warmed up when he's playing? I don't know. Or is he has he just got a a natural ⁓ weakness in that area? I don't know. I don't know. It's it's either low pa low pain threshold as well. Some players have a lower pain threshold, think there's a problem there where maybe it's not. We've seen that at different levels of the game over the years, I think. So it's ⁓ it's frustrating, whatever it is. But again, a cliche, you can sign Lionel Messi, but if he's not on the pitch, he's no use to you, is he? So it's ⁓ yeah, it's becoming a concern and it's It's making a move for Tom Eaves make more sense to me. And everyone knows I love Tom Eaves the first time he was here. I was a huge fan. I thought he was absolutely brilliant. Like his record forty goals what, ninety five games was phenomenal. Again, in a team that was what bottom half league league one. ⁓ I said when the rumour first came out it probably wasn't for me. I you know, five ⁓ was it thirty five goals in s seven years or five years since l seven years since leaving isn't a hugely impressive average. caveat is he didn't have a hugely impressive goal ratio before he joined us the first time, but we can't operate with half fit strikers, and that's all they are at the moment, if we're until we get any more updates. One's potentially got a busted rib, one's suffering from concussion and dizziness, and the other one's got another muscular reoccurrence, which is annoying. So if it was me, I'd I'd be getting it done as early as possible this week. And then at least you can get him in to train for two or three days and with a view to playing a part at the weekend. Yeah, one hundred percent. I think I also and and you know, this this sounds sort of counterintuitive, but in this particular situation, I don't necessarily think we need Tom Eaves to come in and score loads of goals. I think we need him to come in and play a role as the figurehead up front and be that focal point who then brings our other players into play who have been scoring goals, your bro fees, you know, you've got your likes of ⁓ Sheldon Kendall who can come off the bench and make something happen. We've got other players in throwing when he's fit thrown and when he's fit. We've got other people in the team who are able to put the ball in the net. But when we we don't have that that stake in the ground in the final third of the pitch if we haven't got someone to hold the ball up. ⁓ otherwise we're just you know, we're relying on set pieces. So having someone up there to just even if he's just winning free kicks and and winning throw ins in the final third and things like that, stuff we can build around, then at least we've got something. I just think It's so hard for a for a team, even when you've been defending well as a unit, which we have been up until up until last ⁓ this past weekend, if you're asked to do that defending for the entire game, the scope for errors is is just gonna multiply. You know, you want it to be a fifty fifty kind of contest where we're making them do some defending as well. If it's just coming back wave after wave after wave, especially given that we're talking about League Two football. Mistakes will get made and cracks will happen. So we need to s make sure that we aren't just in that defense via tack mode. We are we're properly giving the opposition something to do as well. And without a a big, strong target man to hold the ball up, it makes it very difficult. So fingers crossed, I mean, fingers crossed Goodwin isn't as badly fit as we ⁓ isn't isn't as badly hurt as as as as as maybe he is. I don't know. But ⁓ fingers crossed he can come back in. Hopefully Ronan isn't too banged up. I mean, he's playing with a banged up ankle as well. He's doing a real job for us at the moment. He's clearly not a hundred percent. But he's going out there and running himself into the ground. But yeah, having having someone like Tom Eaves who we can sling on, and make you know, as as relief for a knackered Lamine Silla, who's probably going to be asked to lead the line on Saturday. ⁓ I think it makes a lot of sense. But we'll see. We'll see. I mean, it's where is it now? It's it's ⁓ it's Monday night. I would imagine we might hear something by Thursday. I would think he's probably trained. If if he's gonna sign, he's probably trained with us today. So, you know, you would imagine that we will we will be making moves to make that happen. But it's as you said, it this is a game where I think under normal normal circumstances we will be looking to not just draw this game, we're looking to win this game. We've been good at home, we're on a good run. ⁓ the atmosphere at Priestfield I think is gonna be interesting because you it's hard because you can't look online at people's reactions and think that's what the stadium's gonna be like because you get the you get the full you get the full ⁓ extremes on both sides when you go online and it's not always indicative of the whole fan base. But because I wasn't there on Saturday, obviously everyone's disappointed when you lose, especially when you lose three nil, even more so when it's on the road after a long away trip. But what was the overall sort of atmosphere in terms of was it a case of right, okay, we'll bin that one and bounce back, or was it a case of, you know, where the with the the doubt starting to creep in, were where people start to be a bit more vocal about the management and all the rest of it. I mean what was the you can kind of sense within the collective where sort of what the temperature's like. What what was it like? I I thought generally it was fine. There was there was no booing that I heard. You might have got one or two that maybe do it all the time after every defeat, I don't know. If each to our each to their own and all that type of thing. But the players got a round of applause from the fans. Of course we were disappointed, but referee, although wasn't the reason we lost, didn't help us, I felt. ⁓ and I think most people felt that every time we made a foul he couldn't get his cards out quick enough, whereas every time York made a foul, I think the sense was, ⁓ they can have a warning. ⁓ at the same time, Zayn Albus has to learn because he's been booked, so he's drawn himself to the attention of the man in the middle. So then don't keep drawing yourself to the attention of the man in the middle. And he didn't do that. ⁓ who knows if we played the last twenty minutes with eleven, we may have got something. We may still have got beat three nil, 'cause if it had stayed one nil for longer and longer, we'd have had to be more and more open and and we'd sacrifice two central defenders, so we was already gonna be more susceptible to breaks. But my biggest disappointment was because I was looking forward to it beforehand, was I said, let's hope that it's two good sides that are inform and both turn up. Unfortunately we didn't quite and York took full advantage. But I'm just gonna sit here and say fair play to York. They were very, very good. They did to us what we did to Bristol Rovers, what we did to Trammere and what we've done to Rochdown and and for three weeks we've been sitting here all positive and all happy with the world. So I'm not gonna sit here and lose sleep and and suddenly say this is season defining and we're gonna be on the slide. Let's see how we react Saturday. I think the atmosphere in the pre field will be fine. It'd be interesting if we concede the first goal, definitely. But I'm Not after one bad ninety minutes gonna sit here and lose all faith in this group having sat with you every week for six, seven weeks and said, This feels more sustainable, this group's different, this group's built differently, it runs harder, it runs further. Let's be honest, we were crap Saturday, but up until the red card, we were still in the football match at one nil. It's not like we were three nil down before the dismissal. So There were still some positives to take, even in Logan and Harry who both struggled. I think they'll learn from that and that'd be massive for their development as first team footballers. ⁓ Yeah, I'm confident that we'll be alright Saturday. ⁓ Eli King I think is of all the long term injuries is probably the most difficult to replace, though. Such was the control and the the way you can gauge the tempo of a football match. They're difficult to find them types of footballers. So as we've already said, all we can do is sit here and keep everything crossed that it's not as serious as it looked. He walked off, there was no knee brace at the end, he came over and applauded the crowd but We had this chat in WhatsApp when Liam Gordon did the same one. I'm not sure it makes too much of a difference. If it is bad, I'd imagine we'll probably hear, dare I say it, today, tomorrow, Wednesday at the absolute latest. Because I think if we cast our minds back to Fleetwood, didn't the Kadim Harris one get announced when we were actually recorded? It pretty much did. It pretty much did. I mean, a at at the very latest, I think we'll hear when when Gareth does his ⁓ does his his his pre match interviews. I I would imagine he'll you know he'll he'll give us an update then. But yeah, I'd I I'm of a similar view to you in that I don't have any qualms about this team not being able to bounce back. I think they absolutely can. I'm I was really impressed. I don't know if you saw the postmatch interview with ⁓ Omar Beckles. ⁓ it was on Jill's TV and If you've got Jill's TV and you haven't watched it, anyone listening to this, I I urge you to go and check it out because it in a nutshell tells you why this man's in our squad. ⁓ he he wasn't going overboard about the result. He wasn't going overboard about the ref. Although he mentioned the result, he mentioned the ref. He talked about the shortcomings within the team on the day. But the thing he was talking about was this is this is a work in progress, this team. ⁓ and We're very much looking to build relationships within the team. We're looking to get our patterns of play. They're still building their identity as a football team. And these setbacks and how you respond to them will be what help define us as a team. We're not going to go run through the season putting everybody to the sword and romp into the title with wins every week. So we're going to lose games. This is League Two football. This this is an occupational hazard, right? It happens. It's what you do. when you lose and how you bounce back from that. And he said that the older players in the team, the more experienced players in the team, him being obviously the the prime example, they've got a responsibility now. This is where they have to really step up. They have to get around the young lads who perhaps didn't have their best games on Saturday. You know, you mentioned Logan and you mentioned Harry. You've both been absolutely exemplary for us so far this season. Both of them probably had their worst performances this season for us. ⁓ and that's not a criticism. That's just that's just It in an overall poor team performance, their standards dropped along with everybody else's. ⁓ and that's it. They weren't the only two that were. We were collectively just not good enough. So we're not sitting here and saying it was all on Logan and Harry, not a bit of it. They were two out of probably what did we bring on, four or five subs? I'd say out of the sixteen you could probably count the number on one hand that came out reputation enhanced or not tarnished at all, I'd imagine. It was just one of them afternoons. But ⁓ It but Omar was exactly the same when we bumped him at ⁓ bumped into him at the services after Rochdale side. So he's not saying anything any different and and people might go, ⁓ it's just lip service, because he said exactly the same to me at Peterborough services after we'd spanked Rochdale four one. He said, We're not getting too high, we're not getting too low, it's just one game, we've got to back it up, and we backed it up. And if we're looking at evidence of the season so far, the only evidence I see is we collapsed against Walsall. Lost three nil, lost three nil Saturday, but then went six unbeaten. I'm not saying we're gonna go six unbeaten again or seven unbeaten or whatever it was, but the only evidence we can work from suggests that this team will be fine and we'll get a reaction at the weekend. Yeah. Yeah. It's gonna be I think I think the biggest question marks are gonna be over how we plug the gaps and and what kind of starting eleven we have. What's our midfield gonna look like? What's the left hand side of the team gonna look like? But I think We've got the players in our squad to put out a strong side. It's not like we've completely gutted for all of the injuries we've got, you know, for the amount of injuries we've got to key players, we should be absolutely on our backsides thinking, what the hell are we doing? You know. But we're not. We've actually still got a really solid base of players, and a lot of that's down to the young lads who've come in and done so well. It just strengthens the squad from the bottom up. But I think I think we're in a position to get out there, put put a decent a decent performance in on Saturday. And if we can get ourselves a win, then that'll be a real a real feather in the cap, especially for the young lads who fingers crossed all we'll we'll both be starting on on Saturday. ⁓ fall off the horse, get straight back on it. You know, that's that's how it has to be. And this month, I'm just looking at my calendar here. We got seven games coming up in in in all in in October, which is crazy. We've got six league games and we got a trophy game. ⁓ at home to Brighton on the thirteenth. So plenty of opportunities to play, plenty of opportunities to to put things right week to week. ⁓ and this is this is the first month that is going to be a real test for us. We're coming in off a defeat. We've lost a couple of key players and we got a load of games back to back to back all the way through the month. If we can come out the other side of October still looking up and not looking down, then I think, you know, that's gonna all go well for the rest of the season. Well I looked I looked a bit I looked a bit further. So I added in Colchester and Crewe, because that was our next eight league games taking us to the start of November. Average position of our next eight opponents is fifteenth, based on the league table as we look at it now. Average position of the first eight opponents was ten point six. And I think in that we've played third, fourth and fifth or something like that. Walsall, York and Bristol Rovers, they're all in the top five. And we've come out with one point five points per game with a brand new group, with three people, maybe four people succumbing to long term slash season ending injuries. There's no reason we cannot get over this October curse. We've spoken about baggage and scar tissue previous episodes. There's there's not a lot of this group that have any of that regarding this supposed curse in October. Would it be unrealistic to say out of eight games from now to to crew middle of November if we won four, drew two and lost two? That's not t no too different to what we've done this time. You'd be looking at twenty six points from our first sixteen games, which is around one point six points per game. You're looking at seventy four. We're play or form with everything that we've had to deal with so far. We're eighth after the first eight games of the season. with a brand new team, a brand new squad. I just think some people just need to calm down a little bit. We're going along just fine, considering we've had everything to deal with that we've had to deal with. ⁓ Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Why not? Why not? Yeah. Why not? No, I d I honestly I think there's always gonna be these moments when you get beat. I think the three nil i even though in the grand scheme of the whole game, three nil does sort of flatters us rather than than than than York City. If you look at the chances that were created, if you look at it from a point of view of when the goals were scored and the context of the match when they were scored. They've become a little bit more flattering to towards York because we were 1 0, we were still in the game, we were battling away. It was a much more competitive contest. We have a man sent off, they score two two late goals. In the NFL they call it garbage time, where the game's basically over and then the team that's winning adds another couple of touchdowns onto the score. And they call ⁓ garbage time touchdowns. They were almost like garbage time goals. It's like the game, by the time that that second goal went in, that basically ended it. The third goal was definitely a garbage time goal. You the game was over. It just added a bit more gloss to the score line. ⁓ and they were mitigating circumstances at that point. So I don't, you know, three now on paper looks bad. I think if you look at the context of when those goals went in, there are, you know, you can you can take some solace in that. Maybe I'm maybe I'm being you know, I'm I'm struggling too much to be positive. I don't know. I just watched the I just I was watching it and I thought we let in an early one, we let in two late ones when we were down to ten men and in the middle we were second best but competitive. So I don't know. I it's not like they w it's not like when we played Bromley last year and they absolutely trounced us and it was just an embarrassment insofar as how much better they were than us on the day. This one I think th concerning thing with that type of performance as well, Sor, was we looked like we'd I'm not saying given up, but Yeah. There's there's different ways to lose. And all right, we took a thump in on Saturday, but I there was not one part of me that said people have sacked it off. Even with ten men and three nil down, we were still at it. Dakie straight after the third goal went in, 'cause sort of zoomed in on Ollie Pierce celebrate. Straight away, Daky, come on, everyone. Not last year. It was head down, people looking at their shin pads, people adjusting their boot laces. Mentality is completely different for me. Three nil flattered us. I'm not gonna sit here and pretend any otherwise. And it could have been five. They've hit the post twice, Ollie Wright's made a couple of good saves, we've not had a shot on target. But we only tend to go and dig into all the negative stuff when you take a bit of a hiding. If that had stayed ten against ⁓ eleven against eleven and we'd lost one nil, people would have probably come out and gone, All right, we've got beat, we've had a go, York have done us. So it's it's it's all about different perceptions at the end of the day. That's not us sitting here and pretending it was better than it was. We're not doing that at all. But I still think if that had been last season, that would have been they'd have been declaring after an hour. Yeah. It's kind of a good exercise to have over the course of the season where what would last year's team have done? You know, how would they have performed in this situation? And I honestly, it's night and day what we've got now compared to what we had ⁓ last season. And We spoke ⁓ on on our group chat, we talked about the amount of running this team are doing in comparison with last year. We're doing you know, we're running in excess of fourteen, fifteen, in some cases twenty kilometres a game more as a team than we did last season. And the average the average for a League Two player is nine to eleven K. Gareth McCleary ran just over nine kilometres on Saturday and he didn't come in to the game until the thirty first minute, I think it was. So that tells you all you need to know about application. Execution, technical ability, picking the right pass, all that type of thing are different. But in terms of the cliche that Gareth goes on about emptying the tank and what we demand as a minimum as Gillingham clans is people trying to run through brick walls, playing for the badge on the front and all that type of stuff. You can't fault it still. We were just second best on Saturday against a better side and and that happens. And it will happen again this season. That's what we need to sort of warn people. People might be like, ⁓ I can't let this happen again because it defines our season. This will happen again at some point. We will take a hiding off a good side. But the flip side to that is we're a good side that was second best at the weekend and we will give sides hidings this season as well. Yeah. And you look at the situation where this is a team that I personally, as a as an optimist, said that I'd be d I'd be happy with a top half finish this year. And that if we and that if we got top ten, that could be considered a really good season. And if we ended up anywhere in anywhere in and around the playoffs, then it's it's crack out, you know, crack out the ⁓ the flipping champagne 'cause we've had a incredible campaign. So for us to have the sort of form we've had, we've lost one. Let's see where this takes us. We're we're a month and a bit into the campaign. Big month coming up in October. First one of those this weekend against Newport County. I think that's probably a good time. To ⁓ to blow full time on this and say that's what we've got for you this week on Blood Sweat and Jills. In I've I've enjoyed this 'cause we lost the game, but it didn't feel like we needed a therapy session after it, which is good. and I think that there's still there's still plenty in the tank for us to call upon going into the weekend. So let's let's see how they react, let's see how they respond. We'll see what starting eleven we get from Gareth Ainsworth this weekend. Fingers crossed next time we join you on Blood Sweat and Gills, we'll be talking about another home win for the Mighty Jills. If you want to follow Blood Sweat and Jills, you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, you can subscribe on Spotify, we're on Amazon Music and we're on Audible. You can get us on Jills365.news where all your Jills coverage needs can be found. Check that out as well. And if you want to follow everything that Matt does, and there's a lot of it, go to Jills in the Blood. on YouTube. Fingers crossed we've got some ⁓ some bright sparks to talk about next weekend. Enjoy the game this weekend ladies and gentlemen and until next time, up the Jills.