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The Gills jury appear to have finally lost their faith in their side and many fancy them to suffer a humiliating FA Cup exit at the hands of non-league Dover Athletic.Here's what they had to say:
PAUL BLAKELEY
(Maidstone)
It was already shaping up to be a feisty encounter but now it has an added angle that Dover are flying and we are shocking.
The game against Wycombe was one of the worst performances I’ve ever seen – almost Jepson level! – and I can’t see how we’re going to turn it around in time for Saturday. There was no shape, no ability, no defending, no passing. Hardly a recipe for success.
Who knows, maybe the Dover game is what we, and the management team, need. I’m inclined to think otherwise.
Prediction: Gills 0 Dover 3
SAM LIVINGSTONE
(Pangbourne)
"Another despairing defeat and the gloom is starting to settle over Hessenthaler’s reign now.
Every dropped point takes us further away from the play-offs and is another black mark against his name. Surely we need a more experienced head before it is too late.
Saturday brings us what should be a nice diversion from the toils of the league as we entertain Dover but I can sense an upset as their striker Adam Birchall is in red-hot form and our defence is leaking goals.
I forecast yet another gloomy weekend and Hess’ last game for the club.
Prediction: Gills 0 Dover 1
MALCOLM SMITH
(Grimsby)
This weekend has now become one of Gillingham’s biggest matches in a long while. Mentally, were we to lose, it could finish us for the season but a convincing win (which let’s face it under normal circumstances would be expected) could kickstart the club back to life.
Dover will be relishing the prospect of coming to Priestfield and be full of belief that they can cause an upset and who would argue against that?
The Gills will be nervous and will need a goal to settle them but should that first goal go to Dover, I fear the worst.
With confidence shot to pieces, the gulf between the clubs has become much smaller.
Prediction: Gills 1 Dover 1 (then back to The Crabble where we will finally break our away duck!!)
ALEX SARSON
(Wellingborough)
We're in a terrible position right now both in terms of performances and the feeling around the club.
I feel completely let down by the majority of the players after the Northampton performance and Wycombe sounded worse, and I for one am glad I didn't bother going.
Dover will beat us this weekend if we play like we did against the Cobblers or the Chairboys. If that happens I do not see a way Hess can remain manager, without kissing goodbye to his legendary status for good.
We are 100 per cent part of the relegation battle if we don't pick up points home and away from now until Christmas.
We can kiss goodbye to the top half let alone promotion with the squad we have. They simply do not care enough to give that 120 per cent.
Playing with that amount of effort is what got us up to the Championship those years ago, and when Hess returned I thought he would bring it back. Turns out I was wrong and he's completely forgotten what it was all about.
I sense no matter how bad it gets, Hessy won't leave, and Scally won't sack him, and the team won't play any harder, or any better.
A few weeks ago I would have said we'd beat Dover, I think we draw and go to the Crabble to lose.
Prediction: Gills 1 Dover 1
ANDY STEVENS
(Dover fan)
"After all that’s gone on, we’re bound to draw Gillingham in the FA Cup - no doubt about it." That’s been the mantra of most Dover fans since the three glorious Hessenthaler years at Crabble came to a crushing halt in the summer.
We reeled as the man most likely to lead Whites back to the promised land of the Blue Square Premier and beyond chose instead to hop in the car, tootle up the A2 and hook up once more with the ex, taking the kids (well, Nicky Southall at least does still look quite youthful) with him.
Is it wise to relight the flame of a first love? Early signs from Priestfield this season are that Hess has been handed a box of damp Swan Vestas.
The Whites, meanwhile, summoned the services of the genial-but-nobody’s-fool ex-Arsenal and Dover player Martin Hayes to slam the emergency stabilisers on a Crabble ship that until five years ago, was minutes from the breakers’ yard.
So far so good under Hayesy – fifth in Conference South, exciting football, striker Birchall netting for fun and some cup match or other against another Kent side who play in blue and reside in Medway.
Will we delirious Dover dervishes caught windmilling round our front rooms when this plum first round derby was drawn the other Sunday settle for that non-league cup cliche of ‘a good day out’?
The tireless ambition of DAFC and the almost palpable fizz of this match suggests an emphatic ‘Non’.
Well, we are French, after all – or so everyone tells us...
Prediction: Gills 1 Dover 3
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