I hope that over time both in doing these reports and contributing to the message board I’ve built up a reputation as someone who tends to look on the bright side and tries to be positive about matters SAFC. I say that, as I want to put what I am about to say in context.
I was bored today. I am absolutely delighted at getting three away points. Ecstatic over Stew getting a hat trick. Pretty damn chuffed at keeping a clean sheet. But something was missing. The agony, the nail biting, the disappointment of conceding followed by clawing back. There was none of that. We were just so much better than them. Twenty minutes into the game and it was over. This is not what supporting SAFC is about. Is this what it feels like to be an Arsenal supporter?
On the way to the ground we heard that Kyle could be out for some time so it was not surprising that he was not on the team sheet. In any case we thought it would be interesting to see Stew and Elliott starting together. I was a bit surprised to see Oster dropped. What are we going to do with him? Are the Oster-haters really determined to drive him out of the team? Anyway, I was pleased to see Whitehead playing – after being unimpressed with him for the bulk of his debut against Plymouth, I’ve liked him since then. Robinson got his place straight back as did Caldwell and Wright.
We were kicking away from our end and straight away you could tell that all the action was happening down the other end. Arca revels in games like this and had the freedom of the pitch. McCartney picked up from where he had been at Reading, running purposefully down the wing but (and here is where he differs from Arca as a LB) managing to always seeming to be back in defence when needed. And so our three goals came. The three of them were almost identical. Arca creates space. McCartney charges down the left and then sends an effective ball into the middle. Elliot attempts, Stew gets rebound. Then Elliot. Then Stew.
And so there I was. Twenty past three. Sitting in the glorious sunshine. My team 3-0 up and yet I was bored. We continued to create space, pass the ball and move forward. The whole of the first half we hardly ever saw the ball down our end.
The second half Gillingham never really managed to make us think for a moment that they might do a Man U at Spurs trick and come back to win 5-3. It would have been nice to get some more but the one we did get was very special. Elliot was pressurising the defender, who tried to get it back to their goalkeeper. Stew nipped in rounded past the goalkeeper and sent an accurate ball across the area and into the net for a well-deserved hat trick. Well done Stew. This could be the season we really see the best of Stew in a red and white shirt.
The other interesting bit was the new lad Simon Johnson coming on. He was all energy and running, but rarely seemed to have the ball in quite the right place. I had thought he would be a stand-in for Kyle while the big lad is out injured but he looked more like Elliott.
What do we learn from this? All of the players can feel very happy with their contribution (except Poom for the obvious reason). We managed to create, control and convert while keeping it tight at the back. I’d like to think we can take this sort of performance into the Forest game. However, inside every optimist is a pessimist trying to get out – I just can’t believe we’ll meet a team as poor as Gillingham were today. The Gillingham supporters in the pub afterwards were hoping that they’d not see their team as poor as they were today. We couldn’t believe it when the league table came up on the TV screen and Gillingham were still above us! We just have to get out of this division. This game may just be the kick-start to the season we hoped we were going to be having.