Posted on 30/09/2009 at 16:14 by David Pritchard
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With almost a fifth of the football season over already, the League One table is beginning to settle down and make some degree of sense.
Managers often talk in August about waiting for 10-12 games before they know what broadly sort of a season is in store.
Looking at the table, Gillingham can be content with their efforts so far – 13th but with a game in hand on everyone except Brighton. There is little doubt manager Mark Stimson would be delighted with the comfort of mid-table all season, which while lacking excitement, come spring, would clearly represent progress after promotion last season.
The biggest concern so far is the contrast between results at Priestfield and on their travels. The Gills were less than a minute away from having the second best home record in the division last Saturday before conceding an equaliser to Norwich, with the defeat to Hartlepool the only stain on an otherwise excellent record.
Away from home it is a different story. With just a solitary point – a bore draw at Walsall – they prop up the form table, albeit playing a game less than the rest of the division.
While you would expect to pick up more points from home games, the difference is more marked at Gillingham. It is hardly a new issue, hardened fans will be all too familiar with fruitless away trips.
Last season’s nine away wins in the league was by far the highest tally since winning the same number in their previous promotion season a decade earlier. In between they have a miserable record, winning just 30 league games in eight seasons, compared to 87 at Priestfield. In the four campaigns between 2004/05 and 2007/08 they won 10 out of 92, a period which perhaps unsurprisingly saw the club relegated twice.
Although the season is still in its infancy, the club’s away form threatens to undermine a very respectable start. If it persists then – as the Gills found out two years ago – it is almost impossible to sustain a good enough home record to keep your head above water.
While a winless run of four games should not be setting off any alarm bells, skipper Barry Fuller admits it is a concern: “Our away form needs to pick up soon because we don’t want to be in the situation where we’ve played 10-15 away games and we’re still looking for our first win.”
On paper a trip to Southampton this Saturday does not look like the ideal place to end the run, but Alan Pardew’s side are still finding their feet in League One. Still in minus figures, they would be two points behind the Gills even without their penalty and Stimson’s side should not go in with an inferiority complex.
With bundles of pace going forward they have all the ingredients to become a good counter attacking side - once they get the away day monkey off their back.