By Chris Duncan
Another point on the board, back-to-back clean sheets and three unbeaten. Those are the positives I took from Saturday’s draw away to Carlisle United. Unfortunately, the same big issue persists, our inability to score goals.
In fairness we did create opportunities and, on another day would have scored two or three, but not taking those chances meant we needed a great save from Glenn Morris at the death to leave Cumbria with a point.
Elliott Nevitt is still not getting the rub of the green in front of goal, with an effort hitting the bar and bouncing off the line in the first half and being denied a penalty after a foul in the box during the second. Though with his effort, tireless work and full commitment to the cause, I feel it is only a matter of time before he finds the net again. I also think that once he scores one, two or three will quickly follow.
This week is a huge one for us with back-to-back home games against Fleetwood Town (tonight) and Morecambe (Saturday). Although I personally don’t think we’re going to be dragged into a relegation battle, we need to start winning games sooner rather than later to stop us from having to keep looking over our shoulder.
Since the frankly pathetic performance against Barrow, things have improved with all of us coming away from each of our last three outings wondering how we’ve not taken all three points.
The players have started fighting for everything again, which is the bare minimum we expect from our Gillingham side. I feel that on current form, when we do finally take the lead in a game the opposition are going to be hit for two or three.
The defence looks a lot more solid with Andy Smith and Sam Gale alongside Max Elmer, who has benefited massively in my opinion from John Coleman’s decision to hand the captaincy to Armani Little. The performances of both Romeo Hutton and Max Clark have also improved in recent weeks.
The midfield looks stronger after the January window, but still lacks the creativity needed to unlock opposition defences. We all know Bradley Dack has the quality to do that, but with him often starting games on the bench someone else needs to step up. We also need to play to the strengths of Nevitt to get the best out of him in terms of goals, and I do think that’s what Coleman is trying to do by playing two up top.
Looking to Tuesday, Fleetwood’s recent away form hasn’t been great, losing three of the last four on the road and drawing the other. I see no reason why we won’t come out of the blocks on the front foot and take the game to them. Hopefully this time we’ll grab an early goal and really kick on from there.
One thing I know for sure is that we will all get behind the team from minute one. Continue to play the way we have been recently and the goals, and wins will come.
Up the Gills!
