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More on KentOnline
There’s been a real good buzz around the place in the last few weeks and it feels like it’s starting to click.
It has taken some time to get to know each other, but I think Mikael Mandron, the big man up top, has come in and made a big difference.
He has done really well and I think it is vital for us to hold the ball up and bring the midfield into play, with Brandon Hanlan playing on the shoulder and looking to get in behind.
There were times throughout the start of the season where we weren’t holding it up so much – it was coming straight back – and it’s hard then for the midfield to get involved because you are just going backwards and forwards.
When he gets hold of it and brings the midfield into play, we can get higher up the pitch and if we do lose it we can press up high.
One of the main things the gaffer and (assistant manager) Rayns say is ‘high press and win the ball back as high up the pitch as possible’.
In the last couple of weeks we have been doing it.
It was about time I got a goal and I was delighted to score the opener against Doncaster on Sunday. I have had a few chances this season and it has been coming. Hopefully I can kick on and score a few more.
I copied the celebration off my little one! We have been playing football a lot and when she scores she either puts her hands over her eyes or else she does the dab, but I wasn’t doing one of them!
She is only four but loves football and loves coming to the matches.
When she first started coming to games she would have the iPad out but now she is at the age where she is properly into it. When the other team is winning she is like “no, no, no, come on the Gills”. She will be cheering me on, shouting “come on daddy”.
She has been taking her pink Gillingham scarf into school this week because I scored at the weekend. She was delighted and has been telling everyone about it!
I travel into Gills with Barry Fuller and he was buzzing on Tuesday morning following the FA Cup draw. He’s a massive West Ham fan and so are his little girls.
I fancy us winning that. They were beaten 4-2 by AFC Wimbledon last season, with Scott Wagstaff scoring twice. Waggy was texting me about it on the Monday night.
We had a good game against him and AFC Wimbledon the other week, a game we deserved something from. We lost 1-0 but battered them and I don’t know how we didn’t win the game. There were a few players in the Wimbledon team I know, like Joe Pigott, Mitchell Pinnock and Luke O’Neill.
I still meet up with Waggy, he only lives five minutes away from me, in Kings Hill.
Before the game I said “stay away from my side or I will smash you!”.
I did actually get a yellow card for taking him down when he got through but he got up and got on with it.
You are enemies when you play against each other, you don’t speak on the pitch, but we have since met up for a coffee and we often do in the week. Me and Waggy are very close.
I think I am on seven yellow cards now at the moment but if people are through on goal you have to take them down. It’s a professional foul. I would rather take a yellow card than concede a goal.
We’re back in league action this Saturday and we need to get a couple of wins. We aren’t far off the play-offs and the Christmas period is going to be vital for us, with some massive games coming up.
We are more than capable of beating Sunderland again. Anyone can beat anyone in this league on their day and it is about who wants it more. If we are up for it then I fancy ourselves against anyone.
