Gillingham 0 County 0

A bloody long way to go for a midweek goalless draw, but after those Crewe and Tranmere defeats, that’s not a bad result

Feb 22, 2024

Thursday 22 February 2024

NEXT HOME GAME: Swindon – Saturday 24 February, 3pm

NEXT AWAY GAME: Colchester – Saturday 2 March, 3pm

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Dear County fans, Stopfordians, Gillingham supporters, and anyone else from The Football Family joining us today, a very warm welcome to your Thursday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore.

County didn’t manage to nick a winner in Kent on Tuesday night, but at least we looked a lot more solid at the back after conceding seven goals in the previous two games. Certainly a positive result to build on, and if we can beat Swindon at Edgeley Park on Saturday, that’ll be a decent week in my opinion. Matt from Gills In The Blood and Graham Allsopp reflect on Tuesday night’s 0-0.

Today’s edition is sponsored by Parkers Solicitors Ltd. A big thank you to Adam and all the team. If you’ve been injured in an accident and would like to discuss the matter further, call 0161 477 9451 or email info@parkers-solicitors.co.uk.

Finally, I’m currently walking every street in Stockport to raise money for mental health charity Mentell. If you’d like to make a donation to help me reach my target, please click here.

Total distance so far: 97.67 miles

Total steps so far: 160,432

Total raised so far: £1,561

Total completed streets so far: 156 (Click here for the full list, which includes reports and photos from every day of the walk.)

Further information on the walk can be found by clicking here.

Des Junior

✍️ Tuesday’s match in one word

Matt: Forgettable.

Graham: Hopeful.

🤔 Pre-match thoughts

Matt: That we needed four points from County on Tuesday and Wrexham on Saturday.

Graham: We really need to hold it together tonight. A draw won’t be too bad.

🧐 Post-match thoughts

Matt: A decent point from a poor game.

Graham: We held it together tonight. A draw was disappointing in the end.

🔵 Verdict on Gillingham

Matt: Rubbish first 45 minutes, improved second half but didn’t deserve more than a point.

Graham: Baffling. Had they not watched videos of our last two matches? The way to beat County is to stifle our high press by playing your own high press, and making sure there’s lots of set pieces. Instead they resorted letting us high press and packed their penalty area with lanky beanpoles who stopped all our crosses.

⚫️ Verdict on County

Matt: Better than us first half, didn’t match that second period.

Graham: The first half we played well. After the break, we again suffered from our familiar and baffling start-of-season stutter. We never really threatened them.

🔵 Top Gill

Matt: Shad Ogie was back to his best. Snuffed out most things and was better with his decision making.

Graham: Jake Turner, their keeper. Strong and confident.

🎩 Top Hatter

Matt: Thought Myles Hippolyte was bright and caused us problems all evening.

Graham: Difficult one. It was great to see a few good players back, such as Hippo, Horse and Collar. There’s some disagreement, but I thought Sarcevic had a good game. I was also particularly impressed with Lewis Cass, who looked fast, skilful and read the game well.

👂 Atmosphere

Matt: Patchy. At times it felt decent enough but I didn’t get the booing at half-time or full-time given the result.

Graham: It’s a bit edgy Gillingham isn’t it? A fight breaks out between locals as we leave the pub, and later on, as the second half flags, a couple of County “fans” with a bit too much pop inside them start laying into each other. As they’d already been a bit lively and were in full view of the police box and CCTV this was stupid and had the inevitable consequences. The 378 County fans were in good voice. I’m just glad we weren’t on that “temporary” open away terrace.

🙏 Hopes for the rest of the season

Matt: More goals, more consistency. Find that and we won’t be far away from the top seven. If we don’t though, mid-table obscurity awaits.

Graham: We win nine more matches this season. Nothing else matters.

😀 Best part of the day

Matt: Would I be harsh to say the full-time whistle?

Graham: I got to take the grandkids to school on Wednesday morning, and then finally got to go round the Hunterian Museum in London.

😡 Worst part of the day

Matt: Game wasn’t great, was it. If that was a film, it goes straight to DVD.

Graham: Probably the game. It was a frustrating sort of night.

The British Library receives a copy of every single book published in the UK. In the same fashion, Des Junior believes a detailed record of every County game should be preserved for the history books. So here’s the full story of our 0-0 draw at Gillingham on Tuesday 20 February 2024, as told from his County-related WhatsApp groups…

7.59pm: Bright start. We should be ahead.

8.11pm: We really could do without another injury to Will Collar. There's nobody in our squad who offers what he does in my opinion.

8.40pm: We’re vastly the better side. Playing like the home team. Decent atmosphere from us, bugger all from them. We’ve just got no end product, or ability to cross a ball. But loads of effort. Obviously they will win with their only chance of the game.

9.43pm: That second half was a difficult watch.

9.44pm: At least we kept a clean sheet after a couple of awful defensive performances.

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Photo of the day

Plainmoor, Torquay

Only 268 County fans saw our last game at Plainmoor, which was a 2-1 defeat during our National League title-winning season. Hopefully it’s not the case, but they could be the last 268 Hatters to see County play in Torquay, with the Devon club going into administration.

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Today in SK

🍺 Food and drink

If you’re in Stockport today, pop into The Petersgate Tap (SK1) for a pint or two. Open till 11pm.

Enjoy a delicious meal at The Dog & Partridge (SK2). You’ll also receive 20% off your bill. Just mention the discount at the till when paying!