The Dugout Diaries: Gills v Hartlepool

Welcome to the latest instalment of the Dugout Diaries, in what has been an eventful period for the club. Since I last wrote, we have been dumped out of the FA Cup by non-league Burscough, and Neale Cooper has left Priestfield.

Step into the breach one Ronnie Jepson. It’s nearly a year, two weeks shy, since Ronnie joined the club. In that time he has deputised for both Stan Ternant and Neale Cooper. Concern amongst the fans have been voiced that Ronnie is not experienced enough to take us forward. What Ronnie lacks in “experience” he surely makes up for in his no nonsense straight talking and grit. Plenty of both were on display this past Saturday.

Youth team manager Bobby Patterson joined Ronnie in the dugout. Bobby came fully armed with a clipboard full of tactics, and took notes religiously throughout. It was good to see such organisation from the management team.

Ronnie was prowling round his technical area from the outset; making sure players knew what was needed of them in a very vocal manner. His main target was Danny Spiller. Ronnie made sure that Spills was pressing forward and tracking back when required. After five minutes, Spiller looked exhausted. Not a good sign. Ronnie didn’t relent though. He wanted his players to take the game to Hartlepool. And take it they did. Paul Shields put the finishing touches to a scrappy but well-battled passage of play, by tapping in a rebound from Neil Harris. A roar of approval from Ronnie!!

That roar suddenly became a roar of anger directed at Tom Williams. Williams was having one of those games again. He completely miss-kicked what should have been a forward pass that found the touchline ninety degrees from him.

“Do things fookin’ properly Tom!!!" yelled Ronnie as if there was a second unsaid part of that sentence starting “Or else I’ll….!!!”

Williams then had a shoving match with Hartlepool’s lively Butler, which ended with both players getting yellow cards. Ronnie called to Chris Hope to tell Williams to “Get his fookin’ head in!”

Ronnie was muttering under his breath. I couldn’t tell what he was saying, but by the look on his face, he was not happy with Williams’ contributions in this half.

Concern from Simon Webster regarding captain Chris Hope after the latter received a knock. Hopey was struggling, but stayed on until the half time whistle.

As the team emerged for the second half, Chris Hope joined them, but immediately pulled up. That was the end of his game today. Mark Saunders had made a trip to the bathroom, so Frannie Collin was plucked from bench to go on. Saunders returned a couple of minutes later rather perplexed as to what had happened. What else no-one noticed was that Hopey went off and did not pass on the captain’s armband to anyone. Someone did comment that there was no-one worthy enough to take it on!

Darren Byfield returned to the fray to huge applause. He looked hungry if not yet entirely sharp. Ronnie had to remind him a couple of times to track back.

Gills were hanging on. A break from our box by Matty Jarvis caused Butler to cynically trip him up. He received his marching orders much to the delight of the crowd. Martin Scott was not a happy chap, especially with the crowd in E block who said Butler should have gone in the first half for the push on Williams.

“AR*EHOLES!” he retorted in our general direction.

Despite a few nervy moments, we hung on. Danny Spiller could have sealed the points right at the end of the game. He ran the length of the pitch to get on to the end of the cross. His shot unfortunately went wide. Ronnie was furious, but then realised that he referee had blown for full time. He was caught mid shout, which changed into a cheer. A look up at an approving Paul Scally. This could be the start of an exciting new chapter at the Gills.

Tough game coming on Tuesday night were we see the return of John Gorman with his Wycombe Wanderers, who are currently unbeaten in the league. It’s going to be a tough one.

Until then…

Doug Out!