[LU] Gillingham report

[DAVID NATTAN]

Well we came for a party and in the end we got one.
  It was great to see the ESU open and full for the first time in ages - the biggest crowd in this Division since 1979 - and taking our season average to 26,500 a pretty impressive figure all things considered.
  It was a nice sunny day and everyone was in high spirits and there was nothing really to play for and to be honest it showed.
   
  We made 4 personnel changes from our last game with Richardson, Howson, Kilkenny and Freedman all being rested for the tougher times to come. In addition Johnson was moved from left midfield to left full back.
  We had Gardner making his debut, Sweeney making his first appearance for ages, Kandol and Elding being paired together for the first time etc etc and like I say it showed with a totally disjointed and unimpressive first half performance.
  Our only shot that I can recall was a tame effort by Johnson after 40mins.
  At the back Hunty especially was in the holiday mood - he fannied about with the ball on a couple of occasions,  completely losing concentration and one time this led to a feeble underhit back pass which their attacker read and took the ball past Casper and fired it into the net past the diving Hunty. A couple of mates slagged him off big time for trying to save it - any hand ball of course would have resulted in a red and him missing play off games.
   
  At half time we were 'treated' to some opera singing !
   
  Second half was much in the same vein but we did get it together a little more. To be fair the players deserved a rest after their exertions of the season and so the crowd were, in the main, very patient given the very poor fare that was being served up. I bet the 10,000 making their come back to ER were not impressed !
  Then it all changed - Seb Carole was brought on for the last half hour and everything changed. He gave us width and penetration (ooer missus) and we began to put some moves together - i have said for ages he must be on the bench, he is too lightweight and inconsistent to deserve a starting place but he offers us something extra and something different when coming on as an 'impact player' as modern parlance has it.
  So an eminently forgettable game except for 2 bits of brilliance - the 2 goals - both absolute crackers.
  First Seb beat a couple of players by the touchline and pulled it back to the on-rushing Johnson who absolutely hammered it into the net - when you see it on youtube or virgin you will want to watch it over and over - it was as good a volley as anyone has ever hit ever - yes it really was that good.
  The second in its way was almost as good - a brilliant 50 yd cross field ball from Lubo (??) went straight to Kandol who controlled it on his chest , took a couple of touches and lashed it into the roof of the net - think Alan Shearer at Blackburn before his injury and you will get the idea. Tremendous goal, and fitting in a way that Tres got the last league goal of the season , the one that took us up into 5th spot - fitting given his goal at Tranmere in the last minute of our first game, was, in my opinion, the catalyst to this season and nice for him to shut up his critics even if only briefly - his 11th of the season in 30 starts - not bad for our "second striker" and one that is supposedly rubbish !!
   
  Gardner looked OK and long term may be a better bet than Frazer - he showed good pace and was good going forward though a bit wasteful at times, too soon to assess his defensive qualities.
  Delph who came on for the last 15 mins certainly seemed to have something about him - another one for the future hopefully - the next Johnny Howson.
   
  So overall a pretty rubbish game saved by two great goals in front of a large and fairly noisy crowd.
   
  It will soon be time for the real thing v Carlisle and I still think we have big problems at left back - Kenton seems out of favour, Hughes is an accident waiting to happen and Johnson did OK but not enough to suggest he is the answer.
   
  Roll on Carlisle - just hope some sort of loyalty (ie away games attended) is used to allocate tickets for the away leg !!
   
  Dave