Gillingham 1 v Accrington Stanley 0

Today it was summer for the whole day... which meant scarf, body warmer and hat were redundant. I transgressed all traditions and wore A SKIRT to football... oh yes AND sandals - not trainers - not jeans but skirt, vest and sun tan cream. Ah summer I had forgotten how to dress for such heat...

I did not rush today - got up early for walk and decided to get the slightly later train. Dad was already outside with Colin. That made me chuckle - new best friends - who would have thought that a few seasons ago...

Accrington Stanley (Who the hell are they?) were playing in red and had bought less than 100 fans. Scally in a bid to cut policing costs had decided to turf all the Gills fans out of the Gillingham Town End and squeeze them liberally in other parts of the ground (at an increased cost to them I hasten to add), so the Rainham End was heaving - and for a change had an atmosphere... thankfully the people sat behind us today were ok as were the lads to my left. The painful people were much further down the row behind us. One twin was there, Colin and Arfur and the Pie family were making the most of the season's other initiative (for ST holders at least - each match ticket in the book has two parts - one to get into the ground and one part for a freebie at the beverage and refreshment booth) today you got a free drink if you bought a Pie (last home game it was a free drink with a hot dog - health is high up there as you may have noticed).

But I digress.
We won away from home last weekend - a last minute fumble off the back of Mr Richards foot - and the echoes of discontent from the last home game were in my mind... so I was feeling non-plussed. At least the beautiful weather and inoffensive people sat around me meant I could relax and enjoy the 'game' however it panned out..

I still find myself struggling with players and shirt numbers - cos even those from last season I got right have changed - grr. Dad & I were referring to the prog... So here for this weekend at least are the players shirt numbers:

1 Simon Royce (GK)
2 Barry Fuller
3 John Nutter
4 Stuart Lewis
5 Simon King
6 Garry Richards
7 Andrew Crofts (C)
8 Mark Bentley (TC)
9 Gary Mulligan
10 Simeon Jackson
11 Nicky Southall
12 Mark McCammon
13 Chris Kiely (GK)
14 Adam Miller
15 Rory Hill
16 Stuart Thurgood
17 Andy Pugh
18 Tayler Thomas
19 Sean Clohessy
20 Charlie Howard
21 Dennis Oli
22 Tom Wynter
23 Alan Julian (GK)
24 Danny Walder
25 Luis Cumbers
26 Curtis Weston
27 Leigh Mills
28 Charlie Daniels
29 Tyrone Berry
30 Mark McCammon

Player of the game today - Curtis Weston, came on loan from Leeds but signed permo a few days ago, nipped around the pitch and in tandem with Oli looked very promising. Charlie Daniels is on loan for a month from Spurs. Today we played pretty well - okay certainly better than last home game... Not overly difficult but experience teaches me not to expect too much.

Quote of the match - McCammon 'He's so big, how come he has the strength of a doily?'. It is fair to say Mr McMammon (ex Donny) is not a sapling in size however for one so meaty he is a bit of a weed in a one on one situation. Not what we need up front. Twiglet came on as a sub and things started to happen. We were pinging the goal and as it was at our end the singing and atmosphere felt more like it.. Eventually Jackson* scored. Hooray. He should have had a couple and Twiglet should have had a hat trick - but each shot went wide or over the cross bar. The Stanley goalkeeper saved one. So whilst it was good to get a win - it would have been better to start the habit of multiple goal scores to prevent last minute equalisers and lost points. Do I expect too much?

Next week Grimsby @ home. See ya all in the Rainham End.

* Apologies Oli scored - how could I forget singing Ole Ole?! Jackson will score next time!