Gillingham 3 Brighton 0
We headed for our old haunt the Roseneath and the new landlady opened up for us despite the official opening time of 11am. We helped moved the bar stalls so the cleaner could finish up, then settled down for a few good pints of Guinness and Trafalgar for the real ale boys.
Despite changing hands the new staff were superb and in fact Emily behind the bar was back for her first stint for over a year. The very first day she started in the pub was the day of an Albion home game, so it was a strange welcome back party!
At about 1.30 we headed up to the Will Adams and then wandered back to our old temporary home. To get to the away end you had to pass through a tight police cordon at the end of the road and show your match ticket.
The away end is abysmal and the view abysmal, the terrace is not staggered enough and we could see one corner of the nearest goal, none of the far right had side of the pitch from just below the half way line and none of the near edge of pitch.
The away end was fairly packed but the usual Brighton noisy away support was missing for much of the game, caused by the lack of a roof I guess and the 1,300 supporters sounded like a couple of hundred.
Then again the 8,000+ Gillingham fans were mainly silent apart from when they scored or they could remember to clap during 'Hessentailers blue and white army', which considering the fact they were stuffing us in the second half was very subdued! Many off them seemed to struggle with when to clap, or remember to sing in between remembering to clap!
The match was painful. Brooker wasted a 'goalden' chance when he had just
the keeper to beat but dragged his shot wide.
Overall I thought we shaded the first half.
Second half and Gillingham took control. Beasant made a good save from the first attack but Blackwell didn't challenge for the looping ball and Shaw headed in.
Ingimarsson had a shaky match and he gave away the so called penalty. That to**er Johnson turned away laughing after the penalty was given and he struck the ball home for two nil.
We were oothless upfront and panicked at the back. The game was killed off when Ingimarsson deflected the ball into his own net.
After the game we trudged back to the Southern Belle and were glad to get
the 5.33 and out of the hell hole!
Our day was brightened considerably by the news that Stoke, Sheffield Wednesday and Grimsby had all lost win-able home matches. I was more than happy that after Saturdays game we were still 4th from bottom, it could have been a lot worse.
1 game less for everyone and we are still 4th from bottom. Walsall and Bradford look a little too far ahead so I think it will be 3 from the bottom 4, hopefully in the order they are in now.
Roll on Stoke away on Wednesday, IMHO we just need to stop them winning.
Ratings
Beseant - 5 very unsure
Mayo - 5 spent too much time pushing forward
Watson - 5 dead ball nightmare again
Cullip - 6 difficult match
Blackwell - 5 caught out many times
Ingimarsson - 5 nervous and panicked several times
Rodgers - 5 never got going
Carpenter - 5 as above
Broooker - 7 only player that looked dangerous, but his final ball and goal shooting abysmal, but he didn't give up!
Rougier - 5 no service but very little spark, the team did NOT work out he wanted ball to feet rather than over the top for BZ to chase
Barrett - 4 MMMmmmm, did he grab his chance with BZ missing, noooooooo!
Jones - 6 on for Mayo just after half time but ineffective
Piercy & Wilkinson only played when the game was over, I have to confess didn't even see Barrett go off!
Mark R
We headed for our old haunt the Roseneath and the new landlady opened up for us despite the official opening time of 11am. We helped moved the bar stalls so the cleaner could finish up, then settled down for a few good pints of Guinness and Trafalgar for the real ale boys.
Despite changing hands the new staff were superb and in fact Emily behind the bar was back for her first stint for over a year. The very first day she started in the pub was the day of an Albion home game, so it was a strange welcome back party!
At about 1.30 we headed up to the Will Adams and then wandered back to our old temporary home. To get to the away end you had to pass through a tight police cordon at the end of the road and show your match ticket.
The away end is abysmal and the view abysmal, the terrace is not staggered enough and we could see one corner of the nearest goal, none of the far right had side of the pitch from just below the half way line and none of the near edge of pitch.
The away end was fairly packed but the usual Brighton noisy away support was missing for much of the game, caused by the lack of a roof I guess and the 1,300 supporters sounded like a couple of hundred.
Then again the 8,000+ Gillingham fans were mainly silent apart from when they scored or they could remember to clap during 'Hessentailers blue and white army', which considering the fact they were stuffing us in the second half was very subdued! Many off them seemed to struggle with when to clap, or remember to sing in between remembering to clap!
The match was painful. Brooker wasted a 'goalden' chance when he had just
the keeper to beat but dragged his shot wide.
Overall I thought we shaded the first half.
Second half and Gillingham took control. Beasant made a good save from the first attack but Blackwell didn't challenge for the looping ball and Shaw headed in.
Ingimarsson had a shaky match and he gave away the so called penalty. That to**er Johnson turned away laughing after the penalty was given and he struck the ball home for two nil.
We were oothless upfront and panicked at the back. The game was killed off when Ingimarsson deflected the ball into his own net.
After the game we trudged back to the Southern Belle and were glad to get
the 5.33 and out of the hell hole!
Our day was brightened considerably by the news that Stoke, Sheffield Wednesday and Grimsby had all lost win-able home matches. I was more than happy that after Saturdays game we were still 4th from bottom, it could have been a lot worse.
1 game less for everyone and we are still 4th from bottom. Walsall and Bradford look a little too far ahead so I think it will be 3 from the bottom 4, hopefully in the order they are in now.
Roll on Stoke away on Wednesday, IMHO we just need to stop them winning.
Ratings
Beseant - 5 very unsure
Mayo - 5 spent too much time pushing forward
Watson - 5 dead ball nightmare again
Cullip - 6 difficult match
Blackwell - 5 caught out many times
Ingimarsson - 5 nervous and panicked several times
Rodgers - 5 never got going
Carpenter - 5 as above
Broooker - 7 only player that looked dangerous, but his final ball and goal shooting abysmal, but he didn't give up!
Rougier - 5 no service but very little spark, the team did NOT work out he wanted ball to feet rather than over the top for BZ to chase
Barrett - 4 MMMmmmm, did he grab his chance with BZ missing, noooooooo!
Jones - 6 on for Mayo just after half time but ineffective
Piercy & Wilkinson only played when the game was over, I have to confess didn't even see Barrett go off!
Mark R