Skip to main content

The Inside Line: Gillingham (06/08/13)

Stu Radnedge kicks off his opposition views with a take on Gillingham, after speaking to fan James Tong. 

Following hot on the heels of City's opener against Bradford City at the start of the Football League season on Saturday, we are facing another promoted side in the opening round of the Capital One Cup in Gillingham - surprise victors in last year’s coincidental equivalent at Ashton Gate.


Gillingham enjoyed a successful season last year, gaining promotion to League One as Champions. How has your pre-season preparation been going?
Our pre-season hasn't been wonderful. Three home games against higher local opposition (Palace, Millwall, Ipswich) resulted in three not too surprising defeats, but a full strength side losing 3-0 away at Conference side Woking at the weekend has lead to situation where the bubble has burst a little. 

Coupled with a sudden announcement of more stringent season ticket rules involving ID, photocards, colour coding for gender and a fee to lend it to your mate if you can't attend, all of a sudden the jovial atmosphere around the club has returned to a more typical pessimistic Gillingham!

What are the fans thoughts on Martin Allen? Has he achieved golden statue status for leading such a dominant campaign last year?
The jovial atmosphere alluded to above is mostly down to the work that Allen has done. Delivering the first trophy to the club in 49 years, giving the club it's first ever promotion on home turf, and bringing the fans closer to the team (via open training sessions, inviting fans to travel on the coach or give team talks, responding personally to fans' letters) has been a ray of sunshine after 15 years of Chairman Scally's somewhat interesting interpretation of public relations! That said, he has gotten rid of several somewhat popular midfielders - while he's getting the benefit of the doubt at the moment, a sustained run of bad form could see those grumblings getting louder.

Bristol City obviously lost the same fixture last year, albeit at our ground in the first round of the Capital One Cup, who should City fans be looking out for this time around?
Cody McDonald is the returning messiah, having had two successful spells here on loan (25 goals in the 2010/11 season, and four in seven games last year), he's back for good this time. It remains to be seen though whether he can pick up where he left off, or whether he'll join Chris Dickson and Bob Taylor in the category of "Gillingham strikers who have returned for a disappointing time after having previously shone at Priestfield".

Who do you think will be a key player for you in this match? Are there any signings made in the summer that you're looking forward to seeing?
Keep a watchful eye on midfielder Amine Linganzi. With an upbringing at St. Ettiene and Blackburn, he's set to be the key part in the midfield engine room, with the sort of vision and passing range that'll give Akinfenwa and McDonald plenty of chances.

Can I have a prediction for the match?
I'm going for a repeat of last year's score - 2-1 to the away side. That may be my Gillingham pessimism shining through though!

Even though this is a cup match what are your thoughts on your teams likelihood for a back-to-back promotion this year or cup success?
I'm not too fussed about a cup run, so "not embarassing ourselves" and maybe giving the fringe players/kids a run out is fine. Not that we have many fringe players spare! I doubt we'll achieve a back to back promotion - given the last time we were in this league we didn't win a single away game all season, I'd settle for breaking that duck! Wouldn't mind a few entertaining cup games though.

Bristol City face Gillingham on Tuesday evening at the Priestfield Stadium – Kick off is 7.45pm and they'll be looking to reverse the historical form which shows just five solitary wins in Kent from 27 meetings.


The Exiled Robin

Follow me on Twitter ---'Like' us on Facebook


http://exiledrobin.blogspot.com

www.facebook.com/theciderdiaries --- www.twitter.com/theciderdiaries
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ten days is a long time in football...the new era is dawning

The last couple of weeks has been quite a period in Bristol City’s long history. It’s been chaotic, troublesome and concerning. There’s been anger and abuse (more on that later), antipathy and arguments. And, as is the way with football, things tend to move very quickly. There is now more than a murmur of excitement (not quite full-blown, mind) and significant nodding of approval at the choice made by the club this week. In between all of this City won a game of football, albeit against a team bottom of the league playing with ten men for most of the match. But they won, and got three points and moved back into the top half of the table. Underperforming and not where the club wants to be…? Margins are fine, that’s for certain. So, what has been learned, with the announcement of Liam Manning as Head Coach on Tuesday and what myths do need to be busted? Firstly, the club communications are like Jekyll & Hyde. The engagement pieces, insight videos and some of the fun nonsense
Post a Comment
Read more

Bright Knight of the City

  The lesser-spotted blog post... The string of summer signings has inspired the first post in a year, with a focus on new £2m(ish) signing, Jason Knight. He has been likened by some to Korey Smith, his former team-mate at Pride Park, whilst his high-energy approach has been praised widely. To get the real lowdown I spoke to avid Rams fan, Cory Hancock , of top Derby pod Ram's Review .                                                    Picture from Bristol City www.bcfc.co.uk  Tell us about Jason Knight. What type of player are we getting? An energy player who will run all game long. Knight’s engine is second-to-none. He will run hard for the team and do the work of two players. That’s not to say he runs around like a headless chicken, but he will go box-to-box for 90 minutes. He’s also a solid and consistent performer who rarely lets the side down. He’s played a few different positions, I think most expect him to be straying centrally for us as one of two holding midfielders. Woul
Post a Comment
Read more

Bristol City: Our Greatest Team to the Ashton Gate Eight

Back in 2014, I was invited by the Two Unfortunates website to write about Bristol City's greatest team. It was a story which, of course, ended ultimately in the story of the Ashton Gate 8. Since the site of the original post has long since gone, here it is republished in full. "Eight players with more than 80 years at the club and more than 2,000 appearances between them, cast aside as unwilling saviours" Sometimes, events occur that make you realise your true standing in life. When the emotional mask of expectation is removed and those rose-tinted spectacles are lowered onto the brow of the nose, you can realise that things aren’t quite all they seem. And so it was for me, a lifelong Bristol City fan, when I was asked to talk about our greatest ever team. For when it came down to it, there was only one real choice. One genuinely great team that I could write about even in the perspective-bending world of football and this was one I hadn’t even had the privilege of seein
Post a Comment
Read more