Gillingham assistant manager John Schofield writes exclusively for the KM Group
08:00, 04 January 2013
Everyone was out there fighting against Southend to get that clean sheet and it was great to see.
That performance summed up what we have been about all season, with a ‘though shall not pass’ attitude and defending for a clean sheet and then showing good quality in the other half.
It was a good performance and we played well attacking and got back to what we have done well previously, playing well in good areas, mixing our game up, passing long and short and we got our reward.
The players showed proper hard work when they had to defend and it’s the sort of stuff you do in training day in, day out, defending in the box and stopping people getting shots and crosses in.
You go back to the game against Rotherham, where we defended like that, and recently against Fleetwood in the second half and Barnet in the second half, where we have been in control of the game and it’s good to see.
Leon Legge has come in for his debut and done well. He will head it in both boxes and help us dominate crosses going into our box.
Talking to Southend manager Paul Sturrock afterwards, he admitted he was glad to get in at 1-0 at the break because they could have been three down. Then in the second half, Westy hit the post late on as well and Adam Barrett got onto a couple of headers from set-pieces.
Read the latest Gills blog by clicking this link.
Read John Schofield's full column in this Friday's Medway Messenger newspaper.