Gills extended their unbeaten run to seven games with a 1-1 draw at Loftus Road on Tuesday night, but it could have been so much better, had all eleven players shown the level of commitment and concentration required. Sadly we were let down by a player who appears to want to leave at the end of the season.
A battling performance against QPR was spoilt somewhat by two people who seemed to be there to be noticed rather than doing their jobs. Both referee Phil Joslin and Gills fullback Nyron Nosworthy were extremely poor. Joslin was bad for both sides, but we got the worst of him, while Nyron’s insistence on dawdling on the ball, then giving it away eventually cost us a goal in a match that we could and perhaps should have won.
That’s not to say the R’s fans won’t be thinking similarly about their performance. Jason Brown had to be at his best to keep QPR at bay, saving brilliantly straight after we’d taken the lead, then performing heroics with two point-blank saves in the second half. On balance, a point is probably a fair result, but both sides will have come away thinking they could have taken all three points.
The Gills started pretty well – and scored jsut after the quarter of an hour mark. A good ball through by Southall wrong-footed the QPR defence and Mickey Flynn broke clear and kept his composure, before firing low past Simon Royce and into the far corner. Flynn has been in similar positions on a number of occasions this season – and his driving runs forward have added an extra dimension to our attack.
The equaliser, when it eventually came, was down to some inexcusable play from Nyron Nosworthy on the right. For the last four or five games, Nyron has developed the worrying trend of spending far too long on the ball, taking too long to release passes, and generally giving the ball away on more occasions than finding his own teammates. Fans had already lost count of the number of times Nyron had given the ball away when, virtually in a midfield position at the time, he gave the ball to the opposition, who broke downfield, down the wing HE should have been defending, then crossed for the in-form Paul Furlong, who finished excellently on the stretch. Nyron’s play in recent matches was always going to cost us a goal, it was just a case of when – and sadly, at Loftus Road, it cost us what would have been a huge win.
Other than the two goals, the game was largely a scrappy, stop-start affair, due mainly to referee Phil Joslin’s insistence in blowing up for the most minor of offences. On many occasions, both sides lost out on a perfectly good advantage due to Joslin’s infatuation with his whistle. Some of the tactics of the QPR players left a bit to be desired too. Ian Holloway is a good manager, but it seemed he had instructed his players to dive and accentuate each and every fall during the 90 minutes, staying down whenever necessary. Jon Douglas was booked early on as a direct result of this gamesmanship.
Equally as bad were the tactics of blocking off Jason Brown from corners. Thankfully nothing came of it, but the referee simply allowed the blatant obstruction and blocking off to occur. Both linesmen also had a poor game, making some pretty shocking decisions for ball in and out of play in both halves, which denied both teams throw-ins and corners during the course of the game.
It wasn’t pretty to watch – and there weren’t too many chances, but the team battled well and stayed pretty solid, Nyron excepted. The point gained from Loftus Road means the Gills pull themselves out of the drop-zone on goal difference.
With teams at the bottom playing each other this weekend, a win at home against Burnley should see us pull clear of the bottom three, putting more teams between us and the relegation zone in the process. With Stan facing his former employers, and with him still being revered up in Burnley, a decent travelling support is expected at Priestfield on Saturday. It should be a great match.