After a summer of relief, the new season kicked off at Portman Road with the Gills fans hoping for a change in their fortunes after a terrible season last year. Boss Andy Hessenthaler suggested it may take a few games to get things right with the team, as we have a number of new players to integrate into the side. The truth of the matter is some of our established players weren’t at the races on Saturday.
Hessenthaler criticised the defending for both Ipswich goals. Indeed, it would have been very difficult to attribute the goals to anything other than rank bad defending. The first, a weak downward header from Richard Naylor, was missed by both Steve Banks in the Gills goal and the defender on the line. On top of that, Naylor was afforded a free header six yards from goal, which is criminal defending by anybody’s standards. The second, and crucial, goal may have been an excellent finish from the youngster Dean Bowditch, but quite what Nyron Nosworthy was doing running away from the ball and his man, only he knows. Those errors ultimately cost us the game, but it is not fair to simply single out the defensive errors – as there was a fundamental problem with the way the team played on Saturday.
The longer the game wore on, the worse our ball retention became. In the opening 20 minutes the Gills passed the ball well, using the pace and movement of Patrick Agyemang and Darren Byfield very well against a less mobile Ipswich defence. It was that ball-on-the-floor play, along with the movement and awareness of Byfield, that led to our goal, which was excellently taken by Paul Smith, who was outstanding in the opening 25 minutes of the match.
However, after Naylor’s equaliser, the Gills began to revert to the tactics that served us so badly last season. Hope and Ashby, rather than passing the ball to midfielders, started hoofing the ball upfield, more often than not resulting in a loss of possession. The midfield became less and less effective and ball after ball sailed over their heads. In temperatures around the 30 degrees mark, Smith, Saunders and Spiller chased forward to fight for the second ball, then chased back to try and win the ball back in defence. Half an hour into the match, Smith and Saunders were knackered.
Smith’s had his critics over the summer, I believe with some justification, but I couldn’t fault his effort, application and commitment on Saturday. He simply ran out of gas in the heat and was treading water during the second half. When you play a direct game like we did, you need your midfielders to be full of energy and able to chase from box to box. In such a hot day, the players simply couldn’t be expected to keep up the amount of running required. Danny Spiller, the youngest and fittest of the trio, was the most likely to keep going for the full 90 minutes, but it was he, and not Smith or Saunders, who was withdrawn to be replaced by Nicky Southall. It was another very strange substitution decision - again, shades of last season. Also strange was the decision to substitute our two most natural finishers in Iwan Roberts and Darren Byfield in favour of Mama Sidibe and Matty Jarvis. Roberts may have been tiring, but Byfield looked our most dangerous attacking player, winning free kicks and always making himself available when the Gills were in possession.
Next up is our first home game, against Leeds United. They will provide another stern test for Hessenthaler and his players. An evening game should make conditions more comfortable for the players, so hopefully we can expect to see a noticeable improvement. Let's hope so...