Gillingham head coach Stephen Clemence has admitted that his side won’t finish inside the play-off places if their goalscoring doesn’t improve over the final few weeks of the season.
The Gills missed a big opportunity to move into seventh place at the weekend following a 1-1 draw at home to relegation-threatened Grimsby Town. The visitors opened the scoring inside the first quarter of an hour but Gillingham replied with an equaliser just two minutes later. Unfortunately, for the hosts, that was the end of the scoring.
Clemence’s side have had an interesting season. While the club have a great chance of reaching the play-offs ahead of the final seven games of the campaign, they are also the lowest goalscorers in England’s fourth tier, having bagged merely 36 goals in 39 matches.
The Kent-based club had 15 shots on goal against Grimsby at the weekend in the disappointing 1-1 tie, recording an expected goals tally of 1.61, the majority of which came after the interval as the side pressed for a winner.
Gillingham’s defensive record has kept them in the hunt for the top seven as the side have conceded just 45 times this term which is the fifth-best record in the division. Only Mansfield Town, Stockport County, Barrow and AFC Wimbledon have let in fewer goals.
Speaking in a recent interview, head coach Clemence stated that his team’s potency in front of goal desperately needs to improve should the side achieve their goal of a play-off finish [quotes via Kent Online]:
“Hopefully we can start taking chances between now and the end of the season but you only have to look at the last two home games, Tranmere and [Grimsby],” the 45-year-old said.
“I don’t fear anyone, I am not bothered who we play. I think the group of lads that we have got will take anyone on, but when we get our chances we need to make sure we put them in the net.
“If we are going to be successful this year then that is what we will have to do between now and the end of the season,” he continued.
“If we don’t put the ball in the back of the net I think we will always be in the games, but we won’t finish where we want to finish for that reason.
“We will keep doing our best with the boys to get better and to improve and to try and give them confidence and let’s see what happens between now and the end of the season.”
Writer’s View
The top goalscorer for Gillingham this season has been Conor Masterson who is a centre-back with six goals. When a defender is the club’s top scorer, something has gone wrong at the other end of the pitch, hence why the team have struggled so much in the final third this season.
Clemence’s comments are absolutely correct, but with the transfer window now closed, a prolific goalscorer isn’t going to just descend from the clouds above. Without that potency up top, the Gills will really struggle to get over the line by the end of the campaign.
