Grim

[medwaystandgill]

Unfortunately had bad vibes and they came true. Midfield set up was wrong, sadly Mckenzie was missed in the middle filling in for Hutton who was also missed. This meant a lack of dynamism in the middle coleman just didn't do anything, williams couldn't get in the game at all and we looked pretty desperate.
Grimsby came for a point and got all three.
Fingers crossed Bonner has learnt a bit about his squad tonight, and whatever kept Hutton out isn't too serious.

[summerwell]

It's certainly the case that we still don't have a potent goalscorer in the squad and my heart sinks when I see Hawkins being brought on. If we're honest this result is no surprise; it's not a cause for panic either.

[donut]

Well grim it was. You re right SW no surprise and true no need for panic. But I really wasnt impressed, nor was I impressed with Bonners comments afterwards. I wasnt on Saturday with his play about we re better than that attitude. He should have been annoyed tonight but wasnt, just made obvious comments with no apparent plan of action to do something about it, a bit like Matt Walker with Kent. We knew on Saturday that playing Nevitt up top on his own is pointless, he works hard but he has no support and it wasnt coming from Lapslie, Williams, Ckarke or Nolan, there doesnt seem to be a plan because our mid and the players we have are pretty good. I've never liked Coleman and still dont and we saw how much we can be unsettled with Hutton not available and Mckenzie moved. The change up front was made far too late and I dread Crewe...here we go again, not good enough.

[summerwell]

Sadly I still don't think the fundamental issues for the Gills are likely to be resolved from within this squad, unless Dack can come good. Without him we don't have a creative playmaker, nor do we have an aggressive, predatory goalscorer. Dack might be the answer to the former, if he can be kept match fit.

As so often before we missed two straightforward opportunities from in / around the six yard box, which a genuine striker would have nailed. My views on Hawkins are well-known, dear old Joe Gbode has the touch of a mechanical digger and Andrews is a nightmare, not for defences but for medical insurers.

[muppet]

Agree with the above, the midfield was all wrong, although I felt Little was very good, but alone in his endeavours.
Their goal was dreadful, we allowed their left back to run past midfield with some very poor attempts at tackling that left the defence completely open.
Bonner has made great subs this season, but I would have changed our forwards with 30 mins left as it was pointless leaving it.
As for Dack, we need to forget about him, he’s finished and an unwelcome distraction. Hope I’m wrong, as we need his type of player, but….
Still top, but a set back as they weren’t particularly good, so first real test of the players/management in how they respond.

[swansgills888]

Losing to Grimsby yesterday was very much unexpected.

Bonner needs to realise that Coleman is not good enough to play in a midfield if we are to be successful this campaign.

MacKenzie is far better player in midfield.

I think complacency has set in after the Barrow win and losing at home to a very average Grimsby side is a taste of reality for some players.

[donut]

I also wonder whether hes pushing them too hard judging by his comments recently about time off and maybe the extra game was too far. I didnt like seeing Clarke jogging back. It was an evening match though with no atmosphere and it was a Gareth Southgate/Clemence type of we ve no idea how to go at them type of performance, I know it's not easy but we lacked ideas. Bonner should have known that there was gonna be a time when we had the ball...so what were we going to do with it? Nothing apparently.

[donut]

Just looked at the goal again and they set it up well but the whole midfield was to blame and before and after Coleman made a crap challenge, they were all done for and all jogging back.

[hessisgod]

I think we can overanalyse what in the course of the season will hopefully be swiftly forgotten about and seen as a bad night at the office. I certainly hope so rather than it being indicative of showing up our continued problems going forward.

The goal was really poor. To be fair to Coleman, he's not match sharp at all and he's missed a lot of pre season. With hindsight, I'm sure Bonner will hold his hands up and say he should have left Mackenzie in there, not dropped Lapslie to bring Williams back in and put Webster at right back. I totally understand why he didn't, but he's disrupted a winning side more than he had to. I'm sure he'll also look at his subs and ask himself why he didn't use Wakeling and maybe even Wyllie who would have given us more pace. Certainly Nolan looked well off it again and I don't think Nevitt will look back on that game with any fondness. I'm surprised plan b was the very late introduction of Hawkins for some ineffective route one.

All in all, possibly only Little came out of the game with credit, but even that was more for his energy than output and that includes the coaching staff. A total collective off day.

[Greyfox]

Couldn’t put it better than that, myself.

[donut]

For the first time I'm bothered about Bonner. I do hope I'm not overreacting. What I saw on Tuesday was an inability to adapt and adopt, the players were there to do it but it obviously hadnt been worked at meaning we re more one dimensional than i imagined. We were not good at Donny but they had most of the ball, maybe a blip. But Grim were entirely different. Yes they did play us at our own game and we struggled to do anything about it. Nobody is perfect but i have to say it now bothers me going forward. Think we can forget Andrews and Dack so we need to start looking for answers elsewhere, bonner got it wrong but didnt acknowledge it. It was a Clemence performance with no answers and that's a concern. It seems he didnt recognise, and I'm surprised about this, that he didn't have to go 4231. With Hutton missing it cried out for 3412 or something like that. But he showed me hes not as flexible as i thought. How often have we said it? No plan B.