Bary Conlon

2 wins in a row and 2nd in the league,looking good so far this season.

A pleasing performance too once we took control of things after the first 20. Plus Nicky Law offers more than Colbeck on the right IMO, was very good indeed (barring the obvious moment!)

Personally I think we need to move the ball quicker, and stretch our opponents more - for all the control of the game we had we didn't create that many chances and at 0-0, or even 1-0 - we are only a few seconds away from problems.

I think having Arnison and Heckingbottom back at full-back will help, Moncur just doesn't look natural at right back to me - and though Luke O'Brien did OK he seemed to panic a bit with the ball at his feet and hit too many aimless long balls or go back to the keeper. Having the former two back gives us more IMO as they play the roles better, and have a much better relationship with their wingers - which gets us moving forward with more purpose.

As an aside I thought Tom Clarke was superb, the difference in having him there rather than Matt Clarke was clear to see - he was comfortable on the ball so when we passed it from the back we did so confidently and set the right tone, as opposed to Matt Clarke's uncomfortable, awkward manner when he is in possession.

Agree with you about moving the ball quicker and Luke O'B. O'B was driving me up the wall. Every time he picked up the ball you were just waiting for the punt upfield.Furman, McLaren and Daley could sometimes show for him a bit more on occasions though. As you say the passing was still a bit slow but it noticeably picked up after about 20 minutes, up until then we literally didn't string more than 3 passes together. The only thing with playing passing football though, is not to just complete passes for the sake of it, but make sure every pass has a purpose, commits a man, or as you say, stretches the play.

Actually thought Moncur was excellent last night, and wasn't far from being our MOTM, but I can't argue with Tom Clarke getting it. Everything he does is with a certain conviction, something Matt Clarke sometimes lacks.

I do think Moncur is a good defender, and did well last night, but he just doesn't seem natural in the full back role to me, he seems to do well individually but doesn't seem to fit in with his winger, and even his centre back colleague, at times - maybe it's just because he hasn't played there that often.

If we do only have Tom Clarke for a month I'd like to see Moncur given a run alongside Lee in the middle, the Matt Clarke/Lee partnership seems to have gone downhill rapidly after a good start - Lee looked better than I've seen him for a while last night too.

Lee did look excellent on Tuesday night. The thing is, he was playing with a centre half that didn't have the odd brain explosion now and again, which Matt Clarke tends to do. Tom Clarke and Moncur both looked more comfortable, and this enabled Lee's game to prosper.

I personally thought Furman was a high contender for MOTM on Tuesday. The lad absolutely runs his legs off, at times to no benefit, but everything he did seemed to have a meaning on Tuesday, if you get my drift. His passing was on the button, and his cover defending was good.

Important game tomorrow, we need to get the three points from Barnet at home, given that our next two games are away to Wycombe and Rotherham (who'd only be a point behind us if not for the -17).

Be interesting to see how we approach it without Daley or Colbeck available.

Unfortunately I think we might see Nix out on the left, but he just doesn't do it for me I'm afraid. I like the look of Leon Osborne and I'd much rather see him given a run out. Not sure if he's a left or right sided player though. Boulding is a good option on the left too.

Well we got it totally wrong, I'm not even sure what the system was supposed to be, but it created a right mess.

Well that was crap. Basically.

Gillingham win away beating Macclesfield 1-0 thanks to an Adam Miller goal

Whilst the idea of playing without wingers clealy didn't work, it's certainly no excuse for giving goals away in the manner that we did. It also seems that after of last season where we were constatly outfought in midfield that we havn't learnt from our mistakes. Paul McLaren is certainly a quality passer of the football but he seems to lack any sort of bite whatsoever and Dean Furman isn't a physical player either.

Whlst he certainly isn't the flashest footballer at the club I think we have desperatly missed Lee Bullock since he's been out injured as he gets stuck in and wins the ball in midfield. He may not be the most technically gifted player around but he's exactly the style of player we need in the centre of midfield and we have no one else who can fulfill that role.

Agree with all that, in particular with regards to Bullock.

Some will regard this as heresy but I am beginning to lose a little faith in McCall with regards to his tactics when the plan A of Daley and Colbeck tearing teams apart isn't working..

By the end of last season he seemed to have learnt the lesson that we needed more physical presence in the midfield yet he's now brought in the likes of Furman and Law on loan and the same problems for last year are repeating themselves. I really couldn't understand his thinking today, he clearly wanted to give Conlon a start but wouldn't drop Boulding, and the team he picked left us with a ludicrous imbalance - the three strikers seemed to take it in turns to go out to the left and, as Law is really a central player filling in on the right, it left us ridiculously narrow and meant that the likes of McLaren and Furman never had an outlet for the ball, so we kept giving it away and inviting pressure on.

We had a winger, Leon Osbourne, on the bench who, in McCall's own words, has recently been performing very well in the reserves and training - if he can't get a run out in a home game against a lower mid-table team when our wingers are all out injured when is this form going to be rewarded?

It seems a little harsh to criticise when we are 3rd, but I honestly think we should be doing a lot better than we are, and (as you might be able to tell) today left me pretty angry.

I've never seen softer goals conceded - 3 tap-ins! By all accounts the 3rd goal never went in and there is no way the linesman could see through Evans' body to judge but Barnet deserved something from the game. Very disappointing.

Your point about Bullock is something I picked up on, particularly on Tuesday.

Now Paul McLaren hasn't gone into being a bad player overnight, he had the highest assist total in League One last year, and is arguably the most creative player in the league on his day.

I think his problem has been the absence of Bullock to be perfectly honest. Bullock does all the defensive side of the CM play, sitting in and helping the defence, which enables McLaren to be a bit more loose and creative.

Went to Griffin Park to watch Brentford lose to Rochdale 2-1 on Saturday. My jinx with them continues. We were really very poor. Our midfield was just porous, and our full backs were continually caught out by Rochdale's greater use of width. We have no-one in midfield who can really control the game and create chances for the likes of Glenn Poole or Dean Bowditch (the one good thing about the game, we have him on loan from Ipswich till the new year - at this level he should at least score goals).

We'll continue dropping down the table if we keep playing like that.

Gillingham beat Rotherham 4-0

Boo

Looks like Grant Holt is catching up a bit.

Havent been on this thread in a while.

I think he is catching up. I know in all competitions he has 16 in 19. Awesome effort that. Not sure how many of those are in the league.

Ok just checked, Holt has 8, Thorne 11.

Peterborough United have signed Gillingham midfielder Andrew Crofts on loan with a view to a permanent move

Good win for City today at Rotherham. Rotherham had the better of the play and perhaps should of won, however we dug in did well to get the win. Luke O'Briens goal was in paricular was pleasing and Nicky Law's strike was good although it should of been saved by the keeper. Hopefully we can build on the three points and find some consistency.

Anyone else follow the mighty Bury and Super Bishop?

Still keep looking at the bottom of the table and thinking we are 30 points clear, force of habit.

What a game! 3-2 against Chesterfield tonight, really pleased with the second half performance.

We looked awful with no shape at the beginning, I noticed Daley and Nix both being on the same side at certain points, which left us over-exposed on the left. However, after Lee's freekick we managed to dig in and show some character.

Special praise to Conlon (or should it be Di Canio after that penalty?!) and O'Brien, who again made the other defenders work alot easier. Very reliable young lad.

The first twenty minutes or so were shocking, we were totally stumped by their formation and it was no surprise we found ourselves 2-0 down, once we changed to the diamond in midfield we looked a lot better going forward, even if the midfied players still struggled to play it sometimes and left us with a flat back eight at times!

I can't agree with the praise for Conlon, he is often so lazy it is untrue - the number of times we had throw ins and have no-one to throw it to is ridiculous, he is the big lump who should be making himself available for the ball everytime in these situations, not poncing about on the halfway line, I don't care about him scoring a penalty either, with Lee, Thorne and Boulding on the pitch he should be nowhere near them.

It's a good sign that we can change things and bounce back though, second in the league when we haven't put a consistently good run together when we have played a large part of the season without 3 or 4 of our first 6 choices in midfield can't really be sniffed at, Matt Clarke's nosedive in form is a worry though - Mark Bower must be due a shot soon.