Balham
S24SU Seer
A brief report:
Gillingham is a proper dump. BladeInThatcham, moDtheGod and I met in Victoria and headed down with plans to find a nice pub to hole up in before heading on to the ground. That proved elusive as the first place we went to (the Will Adams) was basically a converted house - albeit with a decent selection of ales - and the second (the Livingston Arms) was a disaster with the beer selection limited to Stella. That meant that Thatcham's suggestion of Jaegerbombs wasn't given the short shrift it should have been.
We then found the away end by chance up a darkened residential street and despite my worries that the stand might collapse, we took our seats along with 348 other hardy souls. It was good to finally put a face to a name (DazBlade88) and see Foxy before he got his phone out.
There really isn't that much to say about the game. Playing an unfamiliar 5-3-2 formation we took our only real chance in the first half with a nice finish from Coady after Porter had hit the underside of the crossbar, before closing out the game professionally. The referee was weak but we figured that our way before Gillingham did and were able to use that to our advantage.
Marks
Howard: 8 only one save to make with a weak shot from Linganzi straight at him. However, there was a moment in the second half where Gillingham lofted in a free kick that Howard claimed at the edge of his area. That alone was a huge improvement on Long, who would have left it to his defence.
Flynn: 7 - a more defensive role which saw him play most of the second half as an auxiliary right back. Looked solid against a limited opponent.
Maguire: 7 - solid, unflustered but booked early on for taking out McDonald. His reading of the game is improving meaning he's getting better at deciding when to go for the ball and when to stand off. He's a class act.
Collins: 7 - see Maguire but without the yellow card.
Hill: 7 - not sure why he was left against Akinfenwa on Gillingham's goal kicks but he didn't ever really look in trouble. That said, he could have left the burly Gills forward to win the first ball and pick up the scraps.
Harris: 6 - got into some decent positions only to waste them with poor crosses.
McGinn: 6 - quiet game for McGinn.
Doyle: 6 - solid game for the returning hero.
Coady: 8 - right place at the right time to score and generally used the ball well.
Porter: 7 - there's no understanding between him and Paynter at all but he put himself about and was unlucky to not score from Harris' cross before Coady got the winner.
Paynter: 5 - for whatever reason, it didn't work for Paynter last night. I'm not convinced he's a better option than Porter and the pair of them are arguably too similar to play together.
Subs:
Davies (for Flynn): think he touched the ball three times. Not sure what position he was supposed to be playing as he replaced Flynn, who was playing right back, but played more centrally.
Murphy (for Paynter): looked to run at Gillingham's defence whenever he could only to be let down by the poor pitch or a poor touch. His pace caused them problems, however.
Baxter (for Porter): think he touched the ball once and that was to give it away in the middle of our half.
Gillingham is a proper dump. BladeInThatcham, moDtheGod and I met in Victoria and headed down with plans to find a nice pub to hole up in before heading on to the ground. That proved elusive as the first place we went to (the Will Adams) was basically a converted house - albeit with a decent selection of ales - and the second (the Livingston Arms) was a disaster with the beer selection limited to Stella. That meant that Thatcham's suggestion of Jaegerbombs wasn't given the short shrift it should have been.
We then found the away end by chance up a darkened residential street and despite my worries that the stand might collapse, we took our seats along with 348 other hardy souls. It was good to finally put a face to a name (DazBlade88) and see Foxy before he got his phone out.
There really isn't that much to say about the game. Playing an unfamiliar 5-3-2 formation we took our only real chance in the first half with a nice finish from Coady after Porter had hit the underside of the crossbar, before closing out the game professionally. The referee was weak but we figured that our way before Gillingham did and were able to use that to our advantage.
Marks
Howard: 8 only one save to make with a weak shot from Linganzi straight at him. However, there was a moment in the second half where Gillingham lofted in a free kick that Howard claimed at the edge of his area. That alone was a huge improvement on Long, who would have left it to his defence.
Flynn: 7 - a more defensive role which saw him play most of the second half as an auxiliary right back. Looked solid against a limited opponent.
Maguire: 7 - solid, unflustered but booked early on for taking out McDonald. His reading of the game is improving meaning he's getting better at deciding when to go for the ball and when to stand off. He's a class act.
Collins: 7 - see Maguire but without the yellow card.
Hill: 7 - not sure why he was left against Akinfenwa on Gillingham's goal kicks but he didn't ever really look in trouble. That said, he could have left the burly Gills forward to win the first ball and pick up the scraps.
Harris: 6 - got into some decent positions only to waste them with poor crosses.
McGinn: 6 - quiet game for McGinn.
Doyle: 6 - solid game for the returning hero.
Coady: 8 - right place at the right time to score and generally used the ball well.
Porter: 7 - there's no understanding between him and Paynter at all but he put himself about and was unlucky to not score from Harris' cross before Coady got the winner.
Paynter: 5 - for whatever reason, it didn't work for Paynter last night. I'm not convinced he's a better option than Porter and the pair of them are arguably too similar to play together.
Subs:
Davies (for Flynn): think he touched the ball three times. Not sure what position he was supposed to be playing as he replaced Flynn, who was playing right back, but played more centrally.
Murphy (for Paynter): looked to run at Gillingham's defence whenever he could only to be let down by the poor pitch or a poor touch. His pace caused them problems, however.
Baxter (for Porter): think he touched the ball once and that was to give it away in the middle of our half.
