Posted on 12/08/2009 at 16:12 by David Pritchard
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Optimism among anyone connected with football always peaks in August. Before a ball has been kicked in anger, managers, players, chairmen and fans all have the highest of hopes for their respective teams.
Even sides which deep down must know they are in for nine months of basement torture speak unconvincingly of a top-half finish, or maybe even a run to the play-offs.
The football season may be less than a week old, but for some clubs the summer feelgood factor may already be at an end after a dodgy start to the campaign. The same could not be said of Gillingham, whose opening two wins must have some fans hastily adjusting their expectations upwards.
It would be very easy to read too much into the first two games. After all, Swindon, hardly tipped to be one of the division’s leading lights, were the better side for the first half on Saturday before collapsing later in the game.
The victory against a relatively strong Plymouth line-up was more impressive and was the first time in four years the Gills had beaten a side from the Championship.
Manager Mark Stimson, never someone to follow the crowd, last week gave a distinctly low-key assessment of his side’s ambition this season. Survival would merit progress, simple as that. Two wins, whilst very welcome, will do nothing to change his aims for the moment. Football can change so quickly that in May we could look back on this week as the high point of the season before reality set in.
So with fans dreaming of back-to-back promotion and the management playing down their chances, can any insight be gained from the season so far?
Perhaps the two opposition managers can give the most neutral assessment. Both Danny Wilson and Paul Sturrock have been in the game a long time and neither offered any excuses in their post-match press conferences.
So often managers look to pass blame on to someone or something else in defeat, but tellingly both held their hands up – they had deserved to lose. Wilson was “gobsmacked” by his side’s performance and although Sturrock was critical of his defenders he also called Gillingham a “confident side” who would “score lots of goals.”
The Gills appear to have picked up where they left off at Wembley in May. Rather than adopting an inferiority complex after stepping up a division, the team appears to relish playing at a higher level – just look at the movement for the first goal against Plymouth.
Keeping striker Simeon Jackson will be vital, as will the addition of another goalscorer before the transfer window shuts, but for once the wild pre-season optimism might not be too far wide of the mark.