Latest / Blood, Sweat & Gills / Voice Notes: Fleetwood Town 0-0 Gillingham
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- Simon Head: Welcome to Jill's 365 Voice Notes. Please leave your message after the tone. Just walking down to get on the supporters coach at some unearthly early hour on a Saturday morning for the long away game to Fleetwood. Wasn't the best start to the season last week was it? Another 3-0 home defeat. But didn't tell the whole story for me. First 80 minutes, we were really good. Looked like a homicide on the front foot. Plenty of chances. Created, didn't take them. But of course it's all about the final result. And that was extremely disappointing. With a now very familiar late collapse, a capitulation that C it saw us ⁓ concede three goals. All eyes today on how we replace ⁓ the leadership of Liam Gordon at the back. Presumably we go for the same system. So I think there'll be a little bit of a change around there. Does Dobbs retain his place? Does Mackenzie drop in? Do we look at McManus? You know, there are some ⁓ choices and some decisions to be made. Not a happy hunting ground this Highbury. I think it's gonna be a very tough game. Obviously, Flea would have started the season a lot better. Two by nil wins. As I say, our record at Highbury. is appalling a one win in Devon. In fact Philippe would have a bit of a bogey side since ⁓ they've entered the league. So I think today I'll be absolutely ecstatic with a point of one all. But you know records are there to be broken aren't they? So I wouldn't rule out maybe a narrow two one win which would be nice and get the season kicked off. Fleetwood's one of those places where I feel like we never get a result. I think they've got a a draw or two up there, but I've seen us lose there and I genuinely struggled during the time we won. We probably didn't. I'm gonna embarrass myself. But of the base of last week, we there needs to be a performance, I think. We need to try to replicate what we produced in, as people are saying, that 80 minutes of that game. and obviously we do have these ⁓ some of these injuries floating around. It's bet good to hear that ⁓ Gordon And his injury isn't as bad as we first thought, ⁓ but still a a couple of a couple of months I think of recovery, which is still a hammer blow, ⁓ but it could have been a lot worse. and obviously we still need a few names through the door. So the team is still in kind of transition at the moment and I think that's gonna ⁓ hinder that cohesive development that this squad really needs. I just hope that we can go up the fleet with put performance and take something away. Three points obviously great, but I'll tell you what, it's not the end of the world if we can dig a point up. And at least get a score on the board. I'm gonna go for a very uninspiring nil-nil draw. Take down. There's gonna be a chance for Gilles. He gets the right ball into the box. He's trying to get a little bit of space. He's made it quite narrow, but he does chip it in. There's a chance here. Head towards goal. Goodwin should be doing so much better there. It was great work. But Freeman on the right hand side. Pass into Freeman. That's a heavy pass. He's just about kept it in play, but Jules have a chance here, and it's headed towards the goal and collected by Lynch. Jules looking to go to the top here. He's got a chance. He's taking the ball and he's taken the shot himself forward. He's cannoned it across the post. Heatwood. So he can get this ball whipped into the box in the opposite. Not a bad one. They've cannoned off the post himself. Keeping hold of the ball here. It was pretty tight there, but they get the ball into the box. It's gonna be a chance there towards goal! It's in the box! I just don't believe it. We've hit the woodwork again this game, it's hit the same post and in this season we've had two games and we've hit the woodwork five times. If the game was about to hit six minutes, aren't he sound they're gonna come on the box and then us the right side and Trippi a chance to get the possibility to head this one away as it goes over the bar. My goodness lead, that was the moment for Fleetwood. ⁓ just returning to the ⁓ supporters coach now. For me, an away point's always a good point. fully deserved, I think, in this instance. A much better performance, a performance that lasted the whole length of the game this time. Really battling performance. Unfortunately it looks like another serious injury. You know, just sheer bad luck. There's nothing more to describe it as. But again, lots of positives I thought there. ⁓ Defensively I think we looked a lot better. Again, we created chances. Hit the post a couple of times. Bit more luck. We might sneak one but a game where we certainly didn't deserve to ⁓ to lose it. And I don't think Fleetwood did enough to ⁓ to win it. As I say, it's at a waypoint, and at a waypoint at a at a ground where we don't really have much ⁓ luck and much success is is a decent result. Up and running for the season, and for me a thoroughly deserved point on the road. More injuries seem to have struck no Gareth McCleary beforehand, and Kadim Harris unfortunately looks like a bad one again, judging by his own reaction when he went off. on a stretcher in a brace it looked like, but lots of positives. It's been said we've not seen a 90-minute performance from Omar Beckle so far, but we got that today. We pretty much got it from his fellow centre backs Andy Smith and Logan Dobbs. Clean sheet is a starting point. We've had some chances as well. Ronan Howe unlucky to hit the post. Good wins got into some good areas again. The real promise at the end of the game was Harry Waldock, Cameron Antwey and Sheldon Kendall. gave us extra energy and a real outlet at the top end of the pitch. 0-0 could have won it, maybe could have lost it. I'll take the point. I'll eat my fish and chips and look forward to next Saturday. On reflection, I think it's a really good point away from home. I think what was really frustrating throughout the game is that we had opportunities to find the back of the net and you know it will work twice again. But you know it could have easily dropped in the back of the net for Fleetwood right at the end as well. So I think all things considered it was ⁓ it wasn't a glamorous game by any stretch of the imagination to go up there and get a point. I think it's ⁓ it's a really good show and a good reaction to what that Warsaw defeat was or from that Warsaw defeat last ⁓ last week. So you know, I I thought that back three worked really well together and we were we were defending pretty well and we kept him at bay. ⁓ and you know, it was one of those games you could have nicked ⁓ near the end as well. ⁓ but I'll take a point and ⁓ yeah, we're finally got something on the board to show for our efforts.