Last night I attended the Gills' first pre-season game as they took on Stevenage Borough at Priestfield.
To be honest, it wasn't much to write home about. Stevenage's first-teamers looked a touch sharper than ours, which suggests the Conference side may have done a bit more ball work in their pre-season preparations so far.
But that's not a major issue - at this stage of the year it's about getting a run-out and taking the first steps toward match sharpness.
The players, in the main, looked in pretty good nick fitness-wise. Of the newcomers, trialist Alistair John stood out, thanks to a lively cameo appearance towards the end of the game. At the back Leo Roget hasn't played a professional game for over two years, and to be honest it showed. He'll need more games and based on Stimson's post-match comments, he'll get them.
After looking on the various forums, I see there are already people having a pop. What's the point in that? Firstly, it's a pre-season game, there are no points at stake. And secondly, it's the players' first game since the summer break. Some of these people need to get a grip and look at the bigger picture.
Pre-season form is a poor indicator of future success (or failure). We gave Colchester United a good shoeing this time last year, with a certain Steve Lomas the star of the show. Yet we went on to have a pig of a season and Lomas failed to achieve anything vaguely approaching that pre-season when faced with full-throttle competitive opposition in the league.
The only things we should be looking at at this stage of the season are fitness and progression. Judging by last night's game, the fitness is already well underway, and as the side progresses through its pre-season schedule, hopefully we'll see the progression too. But you can't see that after one game - last night was a starting point. By the time Birmingham City visit Priestfield on July 26, we should see a noticeable improvement.
Let's not forget, the first game that actually matters doesn't happen until August 9th. Until then, let's just let Stimson and his coaching staff work on the side.
THURGOOD'S RED MIST
In terms of player performances, it's unfair to start assessing individuals after just one game, but there was one noticeable area of concern regarding one of our players last night - and that player was midfielder Stuart Thurgood.
Now I understand it's pre-season and Stuart's struggled to make an impression at Priestfield so far (he was loaned back to his previous club Grays last season after failing to break into the Gills side), so the bloke's going to be particularly keen to make an impression. But he's got to sort his head out if he's serious about challenging for a place in the side this season.
Twice he committed what I can only describe as deliberate, nasty fouls. The first was a blatant and unnecessary hack at Steve Morison after the big striker ran past him.
The second one was even worse. An unprovoked two-footed knee-high lunge, in stoppage time, by the corner flag, was absolute madness and would have seen him sent off and banned for a fair few games had it taken place in a League Two match this season.
Referees are being instructed to take a hard-line approach to reckless challenges this season, and this is likely to remove a lot of common sense and produce a lot more sendings off in its place. With that in mind, combative players are going to have to be particularly careful when throwing themselves into challenges. If he continues as he started in last night's game, Thurgood's likely to be a prime candidate to receive a fair few red cards this season.
Aggression is clearly a key part of Thurgood's game, but there's a fine line between being a hard player and being a liability, and for my money Thurgood is going to need to use his brain a little more when out on the pitch, or he's going to end up letting himself and his teammates down.
He's raw, he's aggressive and I think he's got the potential to develop into a solid player at this level, but he's just got to calm down a bit and use his head more when he's out on the pitch. I genuinely hope he does, because Mark Stimson's given him a real chance - and it would be a real shame for Thurgood to waste it.