PRIESTFIELD PREVIEW
Richard Day looks ahead to the Gills opening day fixture.....
This Saturday see's the opening fixtures of the npower League Two 2010-11 season with Andy Hessenthaler's Gillingham facing Cheltenham Town here at Priestfield Stadium.
The Gillingham manager admitted that he was "excited" and "couldn't wait until 3.00pm on Saturday" during his pre-match press conference at the training ground on Thursday morning.
Everybody knows that every manager has his own way of doing things in the build-up to the new campaign i.e fitness work, pre-season games against varying strength's of opposition, team bonding exercises etcand everyone also knows that anything can happen once the players cross that white line on Saturday afternoon. Remember last summer? Newcastle United were crushed by Leyton Orient 6-1 in a friendly at Brisbane Road. But what happened next, the Magpies waltzed off with the Championship title while the East London side struggled at the wrong end of League One.
Then on the opening day of the season the Gills thrashed Swindon Town 5-0 here at Priestfield, no-one will need reminding that we were relegated while the Wiltshire side went on to reach the Play-off Final. Who said it's a funny old game?
Simeon Jackson celebrates his hat-trick following the
opening day rout of Swindon last season.
TEAM NEWS…..
The Gills will definitely be without Barry Fuller (knee), Cody McDonald (foot), Dennis Oli (hamstring), Garry Richards (ankle) and Andrew White (hamstring) while prior to training on Thursday there were slight doubts over Jack Payne, Danny Spiller and Curtis Weston. It is hoped that the latter three will be fit and included in the squad along with strikers Adebayo Akinfenwa and Mark McCammon who may both start on the bench.
Cheltenham boss Mark Yates has a fully fit squad to choose from apart from young forward Theo Lewis who is ruled out with glandular fever.
Gillingham v Cheltenham Town
npower League Two 2010/2011
Sat 7th Aug 2010 Kick Off 3.00pm
Tickets are currently on sale, with availability in all areas of the ground.
These can be purchased by booking online, by calling 01634 300000 (option 3), or by visiting the Ticket Office in person.
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Paul Crossley
Assistants: John O'Brien and Mathew McLaughlin
4th Official: Elliott Kaye
COLOURS
The Gills will be in their new kit of blue and black striped shirts, sponsored by Automatic Retailing, with black shorts and socks.
Our visitors Cheltenham will be in their home kit of predominantly red and white stripes, red shorts and socks.
ARRIVALS
There have been seven new arrivals at Priestfield this summer while a couple of familiar faces have also re-appeared. New boys, goalkeeper Lance Cronin (Ebbsfleet), defender Tony Sinclair (Woking), midfielder Stanley Aborah (AS Trenčín) and strikers Adebayo Akinfenwa (Northampton), Cody McDonald (Norwich City), Stefan Payne (Fulham) and Andrew White (Reading) have been joined by Gills 'old' boys midfielder Danny Spiller (Dagenham) and the versatile Nicky Southall (Dover Athletic).
Tony Sinclair will be hoping to make his league debut for
the Gills on Saturday
Cheltenham manager Mark Yates has today added Coventry City striker Shaun Jeffers to his squad, he becomes the 11th new arrival at the Abbey Business Stadium during the summer.
The 18-year-old forward, who is likely to be on the bench against the Gills here at Priestfield tomorrow, has signed an initial one-month loan deal but the Robins do have an agreement with Coventry to extend the loan deal should they wish to.
The Bedford born striker made his full debut in a 1-0 League Cup defeat to Hartlepool United back in August last year, and went on to make four substitute appearances for the Sky Blues in the Championship.
Speaking about his new acquisition Yates said "Shaun is a young forward who comes highly recommended by [Coventry manager] Aidy Boothroyd. I've seen him a couple of times and he's strong with bags of potential."
Yates added "He is just over 6ft tall, he has strength but mobility and can score goals as well. He will give us some healthy competition for places and I'm sure we have got a very talented player on our hands."
The other new signings are goalkeeper Daniel Lloyd-Weston
(Port Vale), full-back
Danny Andrew (Peterborough United), defenders
Steve Elliott(Bristol Rovers), Keith Lowe (Hereford United)and
Martin Riley (Kidderminster Harriers), midfielders Frankie Artus and JJ Melligan (Dundalk), winger Brian Smikle (Kidderminster Harriers) along with strikers Wes Thomas (Dagenham)andJeff Goulding(Bournemouth
ROBINS NEWS
YATES: BRING IT ON
In his press conference ahead of tomorrows game, Robins boss Mark Yates had the following to say "I've heard that Gillingham are favourites for promotion and that a few people have us down as firm favourites for relegation - bring it on. The pundits making those decisions have probably never seen us play and they're just reading into our league position from last season."
He continued "We've got a great set of lads, a real spirit, a lot of quality and if we have a good start to the season then who knows what can happen."
CHAIRMAN WANTS TOP TEN FINISH
Robins chairman Paul Baker has set the club the target of a top-10 finish in League Two this season.
Mark Yates begins his first full term as manager after the club narrowly avoiding back-to-back relegations at the end of the 2009-10 campaign.
Baker told BBC Radio Gloucestershire "We have to assume our status will be based on our crowds and our playing budget and mid-table is realistic. We need to be more ambitious than that and we would look to be getting a top-10 finish this season."
PREVIOUS LEAGUE MEETINGS HERE AT PRIESTFIELD
The first…..
GILLINGHAM 6-1 CHELTENHAM TOWNSouthern League League One January 28th 1938
Scorers: Gills -Wilson (2), Rowley (2), McGee (2)
Gills: Whitelaw, Bradbury, Costello, Smith, Armstrong, Neal, McGee, Wilson, Rowley, Johnson, Scott.
and the last.
GILLINGHAM 0-0 CHELTENHAM TOWN League OneFebruary 2nd 2008 Att: 4,933
Gills: Royce, Fuller, Bygrave, King, Nutter, Bentley (Oli63), Crofts, Thurgood (Lewis46), Miller, Facey, Jackson. Unused Subs: Stillie, Griffiths, Richards.
Town: Higgs, Gill, Gallinagh, Caines, Wright, D Agostino (Brown 63), Bird, Russell, Lindegaard, Brooker (Spencer38), Gillespie. Unused Subs: Brown, Connolly, Wylde.
THE LATEST BETTING ODDS FROM CORAL:
Gillingham to win 4/6, Draw 5/2, Cheltenham to win 9/2
First Goalscorer (Gillingham)
Adebayo Akinfenwa - 7/2
Stefan Payne- 4/1
Andy Barcham - 6/1
Chris Palmer- 16/1
Chris Palmer - a 16/1 shot to score the first goal against
Cheltenham on Saturday
First Goalscorer (Cheltenham)
Jeff Goulding - 8/1
Wes Thomas- 8/1
Frankie Artus - 16/1
Steve Elliott- 28/1
