Friendly Fire: Gills 0-1 QPR

Last updated : 23 July 2006 By Simon Head

Flynn: announced as the skipper for this season

In what was largely a scrappy and at times niggly match, the Priestfield fans were given the first chance to run the rule over a number of their new recruits, while welcoming back some familiar faces.

A special reception was reserved for Brent Sancho, back at the club after his World Cup exploits, while new signings Dean McDonald, Clint Easton, Mark Bentley and Gary Mulligan started the match for the Gills.

In the second half, a soft effort from Ray Jones trickled into the net, beating trialist goalkeeper, Dutch Antilles international Raymond Homoet's despairing dive for the game's only goal, but in truth it was more of a fitness runout for the Gills.

It's not always easy to take a lot out of a pre-season game like that, but with so many new players, there was plenty for Gills fans to see and assess:

Dean McDonald looked very lively, as did his second half replacement Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu [by the way, the players were calling him Gee, so that's cleared up his nickname]. They were both partnered by Gary Mulligan and while the forward line exhibited work rate in abundance, they never really threatened the goal. Of the three, Nsungu possibly looks the biggest goal threat, and he impressed with his back-tracking to harry defenders into mistakes. Both Nsungu and McDonald are very quick, with an excellent touch, and plenty of tricks.

In midfield, Mark Bentley is a man-mountain, and at times acted as a human battering ram during set-pieces. He'll cause havoc from dead-ball situations this season for sure. New captain Michael Flynn produced a good all-round performance, and hopefully the armband will bring the best out of the Welshman, whose quality (and goals) from the middle of the park could be vital to our cause this season.

Their replacements in the second half, Andy Crofts and Alan Pouton, both looked fit and in decent form, meaning there should be plenty of competition for places in the midfield this season.

Matty Jarvis looks our best attacking threat by far, and we are a far better side with him in it. The vast majority of our good attacking play came through him. On the other wing, another new signing, Clint Easton, was largely under-used by his teammates, but has a decent touch and came into the game more in the second half. Hopefully he'll provide a better balance to the side this season.

On the negative side, some of our play left us scratching our heads. The general tactic for us seemed to be to get the ball wide and get crosses into the box, which seemed a decent enough way to go about it - but hoofing long balls at our five foot four striker Dean McDonald (who was marked by the man-mountain that was Danny Shittu) was simply ridiculous. If we're going to play McDonald, then we have to abandon that sort of play and start playing more football on the deck. If we had a big, strong, dirty centre forward up there, then it would be a valid tactic, but we don't, so we've got to address that.

It's difficult to be overly positive or negative after one pre-season showing, but there were enough positive signs among our new signings to suggest we might be a better balanced side this season. The one concern remains in front of goal. We now have the work rate and the trickery, but do we have that 15-20 goal finisher? We'll have to wait and see.