League Two Gillingham started the season in fine form and were at the forefront of many early favourites for promotion over the first period of matches in the season.
But a worrying amount of inconsistency in results in recent times has seen them drop into the bottom half of the table, occupying thirteenth place following Boxing Day’s fixtures, although they are still only four points off the playoffs in a crowded League Two, with many teams just a win away from overtaking each other in the hunt for promotion.
The Gills lost 2-0 on the road at in-form Colchester and struggled all afternoon to stop their high press, with the second goal coming late on following an error from defender Shad Ogie.
Captain Max Ehmer played the full 90 minutes, and told club media the performance just simply was not of the required standard:
“It wasn’t good enough. We lacked control in the game. We didn’t win enough second balls, win enough first balls. Just an all-around poor day. It’s something that we need to learn quickly because we seem to be too inconsistent in terms of doing it.
We lacked control, lacked quality at times, and at times we could have got back into it but we didn’t. We didn’t make it count. It falls on everyone.
It was a catalogue of errors before the goal, but it’s something that we sort of pride ourselves on is being fast starters, and we haven’t started fast. They came out in the first six or seven minutes and they were on top. We couldn’t get out of our half. We will dissect that in the coming days.”
The Central defender, who has now made over 400 appearances for The Gills, has highlighted how important it is to improve as the season goes on with games coming thick and fast, as the playoff race heats up with so many teams involved, starting with Monday nights trip to AFC Wimbledon, which is live on Sky Sports:
“In terms of our away support numbers, they were superb on Boxing Day. We haven’t given them what they deserved, so it’s down to us to make sure we put that right against AFC Wimbledon.
Every game is a tricky game in this league. For some reason, we tend to do better against the better teams, but that’s something we need to snap out of. That’s a poor mentality to have. You should go into every game like it’s a cup final”
Writers View
Gillingham definitely have the squad on paper to be real challengers for the top seven, and are a club that will feel that they belong in League One, rather than the third tier, and it is clear that that is the aim this year.
They need to turn losses into victories very quickly, particularly on the road, where they have only won three games all season, a record that needs to be majorly improved if they are to mount a proper push for the playoffs.
