Let's not underestimate how good that first hour was today

We all left the ground having endured a tough last 25 mins, and I'm sure our recent experiences of Barnsley teams played into a fear we'd chuck it away. But we didn't, we saw it through, and we got the 3 points.

The football we played for the first 45 today was absolutely superb. As it was against Oxford, and by all accounts (I don't get to many away games at all nowadays) against Rochdale too. The team is being set up to really go at teams, to try and destroy them completely, and it's an absolute pleasure to watch.

Stendel is a manager who clearly has a really strong view on how he wants to see football played, and I applaud the board for picking him out and bringing him here. I really, really hope it leads to a successful tenure with us, and the signs so far are really positive. Absolutely love watching him on the touchline - the moment today where he grabbed Mowatt after he'd chased down an opponent to block a clearance sums him up. As a player, surely you'd love playing for a bloke with that much passion?

We're going to come up against a lot of different challenges this year, and we need to learn from them all to make us a better team. The signs so far are that we're doing just that - whereas against Wimbledon we struggled to break them down after we'd failed to score after pressuring them in the first 15 mins, today we pushed more and more men forward and flooded them to the point where if the first half had gone on for another 15 mins, we'd likely have led 6-0 at half time. It wouldn't have been too far fetched.

In the second half, I think we got sloppy. Maybe fitness and tiredness were an issue, but we took our foot off the gas and the lack of impetus from us gave them a foothold. In the end, they probably ought to have equalised, though we still caused them problems on the break.

What I've found really refreshing today is listening to the post-match press with Stendel and Adam Davies and hearing them recognise that we've learned from the experience, and have an idea what we need to work on to get better. Davies alluded to a lack of momentum as we slowed up, and Stendel said that he expects us to work on our fitness levels and be able to do it for 90 mins later in the season.

I don't know how much of a yardstick Gillingham are - I don't pay as much attention to the opposition and other teams in the league as maybe I could - but if they're relatively representative of the league, then we're going to be far too strong for a lot of teams.

Yooooooooou Reeeeeeds!

 

Fully agree with that. Great post. I’m loving watching us at the moment, and funnily enough I never had that “same old Barnsley” feeling when they scored. I was annoyed as we should have been 5 up, but still confident we would see it out or score another. I think the subs restricted our chance of scoring another, and doubt they will be on the bench once squad is back to full fitness. Central midfield looks so strong with Dougall and Mowatt, and Potts was great driving forward with the ball. When he went off, and Gillingham put an extra man into midfield, we lost our drive.

Dougall is so good. In injury time when he slid in, tackled the man, and kept possession was brilliant. He seemed to control himself after a mad first 10 minutes where he looked like a booking/red card waiting to happen. I worry about what we do when he or Mowatt aren’t available. I would rather we had loaned out Bird to L2 and brought in a real challenger to them. I worry about us trying to persevere with McGeehan just because he cost some coin. Sometimes you have to cut your losses. Hope he “comes good” but just can’t see it at the moment.

 

Absolutely - Dougall and Mowatt look a real partnership. I'm made up for Mowatt in particular.

Agree we may lack depth, though I wonder if the solution is to get the wide players fit and firing. If we have Isgrove and Hedges fit and Bahre fits in, then in theory Potts with either Dougall/Mowatt could work.

I'm not keen on writing off McGeehan yet though, and would like to see him get games. He was miles off today, but he obviously has something about him from his performances with Luton. The injury clearly had a big effect on him. Sometimes players just need a run of games, a bit of luck to boost confidence or something like that to get them going. Look at Mowatt this year - I don't think anyone saw this level of performance in him.

 

Hopefully if he gets a few games then his confidence will come back. Like you say, I never in a million years thought Mowatt would be so good this year. He’s everything I hoped he would be when we signed him. If he finds his range then he has every chance of chipping in 5-10 goals which will be vital. And like you say, once the wide players are fit we may go 4-4-2 and in this league Any 2 should be able to compete in the centre.

It’s all positive for me. Yes areas to improve. But we’re unbeaten and looking very good for the most part. As Stendel said we’re 6 games in. 40 odd more to perfect the performance & with a few key players still to come back in.