Gillingham 2 Hartlepool 1

Match 34/07/651 - Saturday, 24th November 2007 - League One

Gillingham (0) 2 Oli 46, 60
Hartlepool (1) 1 Brown 25
Att. 5,488

Entrance: Season ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 45/3,077

Match Report

Today resembled the first day at Secondary School. Lots of new faces to take in, names that you cannot put to faces, some of the lads look a bit bigger and some smaller than you. So it was at Priestfield with potentially eight new names on the team sheet for the first time in a home league match. Luke Freeman, a 15-year-old debutant in the FA Cup at Barnet to be added to the seven new signings. Mark Stimson has raided his old clubs Grays for Dennis Oli and Stuart Thurgood and Stevenage for Adam Miller and John Nutter. He also had at his disposal Adam Bygrave from Reading, Shabazz Baidoo (what a name!) from QPR and Leroy Griffiths from Grays, but more recently playing at Lewes.

Ultimately, Oli, Griffiths, Thurgood and Bygrave made the starting line-up with Miller and Freeman coming on from the bench. It was not surprising therefore that Gillingham played the first half with the look of a bunch of strangers cobbled together for a football match. Evident was Thurgood’s almost over-enthusiasm and Bygrave’s obvious lack of experience, but the disjointed 45 minutes contributed to a 1-0 half time deficit.

Pre-Stimson, Gillingham have been a team that has been criticised for a lack of spirit and to hark back to Barnet, gutless. Stimson’s Gillingham will be a team that might be short on quality at present, but they will not go down without a fight. Within a minute of the restart, Griffiths lofted a ball over the top for Oli to run onto and lob the keeper. On the hour it was all Oli’s own work as he run through challenges to finish with some style. On this showing it is not hard to see why Oli scored plenty at Conference level, he has both pace and a eye for goal. During this second half, Thurgood snapped away like a little terrier, Stimson, interviewed after the game, likened him to Andy Hessenthaler, another late entry into the Football League, and the comparison can be justified. The last 15 minutes saw Gillingham sinking back towards their own penalty area, a Jepson trait that will be coached out by Stimson hopefully. But they manfully saw it out with Miller chasing down everything up front and rightly taking plaudits for his efforts.

This is the type of spirit that fans will warm to. Nobody is naïve enough to think we are Arsenal, but conversely will not tolerate a lack of effort or spirit. Stimson has made a great start, results have been good but not spectacular, but there is an air of positivity about the place and despite the fact that he is tapping into his non-league roots for his signings, his judgement is not being questioned.

My own opinion is that too much ground has been lost under Jepson to make any real assault on the top half of the table this season, but a sound foundation can be built in the coming months to take into next season.