Gillingham 2 - 1
I woke this morning with a different feeling then normal. This was no ordinary Saturday morning in a British summer, this was the opening day of the football season. A long 12 weeks has pasted and with no world cup or European championship to keep me occupied this season couldn’t come quick enough.
I walked into Priestfield at 2pm this afternoon not 100% sure of what I was expecting from this season. My heart says that an instant return to the championship but my brain said a realistic top 10 finish moulding together a young team for the future. I took my seat in Medway E Block excited about 40 more weeks of up and downs, though hopefully more Ups.
If you needed a game to kick you back to reality this was it. We are not a championship side, this is league one and if anything is learnt from today’s game, this season is not going to be pretty.
Taken my seat from behind the away dug out who was sitting directly to my right was the Colchester Manager Phil Parkinson, who just could make up his mind to sit in his chosen Medway stand seat or in the dug out, though hope Scally has charged him the appropriate rate to sit there.
Straight from the kick off the style of the game was seen and wasn’t to change much. Cooper selected a different line up then I was expecting with Spiller partnering Byfield upfront and Hessenthaler controlling the centre of the park. But this was a new manager, a new team and the beginning of a new era, so I would give Cooper the benefit of the doubt and trust his decision and see what pans out. What the fans saw for the 1st 45mins was a poor display by both teams with the exception of Byfield who played his socks, produced some excellent touches and nice runs of because of the lack of service in the middle of the park his was limited to what he can pull out of the bag, if this is his season to shine he cant do it all on his own. From Colchester, they came with a game plan, close the gaps, and target Iwelumo, who made hope look this height of Hessenthaler, but despite Iwelumo height he couldn’t produce anything of a serious threat and perhaps this is the new Freak now our old friend Crouch is playing top level football.
A Gills goal disallowed half way into the 1st half for an obvious shove was a close we would come to breaking the deadlock in the first half with the exception of Byfield flicking a beautiful ball through to spiller in the
The second half started like the first and this game had 0-0 written all over it and some of players still looked like they were on their summer breaks, then Colchester got their break through, a broken down Gills attack on the right wing and Colchester sent a through ball switching wings. Cox was stranded in no mans land, out of position and Jackman was pulled into the centre of defence as a cross whipped in and Colchester where left with far to much space and time 8 yards from our goal and they could of missed, though the shot seemed to be miscued as Brown didn’t seen to move for it properly.
For the next 10 mins
The signs where not looking good, and must admit that we would be lucky to pull a point from the game. Hessenthaler was substituted for new boy Shields. Then the break through, Jackman found plenty of space on the right, the cross sent into the box, missing everyone, eventually finding spiller who sent a pin point cross into the centre of the box where crofts sent a lunging flying header into the bottom left of the goal and Priestfield erupted.
With 10mins to go we saw the introduction of Jarvis shortly followed by Corneille. Jarvis who I had hoped would of started the game was providing some nice touches and Corneille impressed me with his commitment and pace down the right. With time running out quickly, Byfield found himself in possession 20 yards from goal, 3 defenders surrounding him then turned all 3 before curling a beautiful pinpoint shot into the bottom right.
4 Minutes of added time and
Conclusion
A draw was probably a fair result and a poor game in general. We should some strong weaknesses up front, at Right Back and Left Back and a better team would of punished us earlier. This needs to be resolved if a serious top 6 campaign is to be mounted. On the positives, its a great moral boost to come from behind and win and Byfield had a superb game and could be a star of league one this season if he forms remains this high. The ground was a bit to quiet and never got going but at least we got the Last Waltz before kick off.