League 1 betting preview : Colchester United- Gillingham
Sep 19, 2015
Six new previews for clubgowi subscribers today ( which makes ten in total for the day and the first of those has just taken the lead.....Kashima Antlers......always best to start on the front foot, so fingers crossed !) and you can read one below, so 10% of today's output ...........
League 1 : Colchester United- Gillingham
Gillingham are sitting top of League 1 and we have great value with our outright (up to 40-1) and top 6 (up to 5.50) bets, which are now down to 9.0 and 2.0 respectively, we last previewed them for their home game with Doncaster Rovers and those notes are reproduced in full below, they won that 1-0 and followed up with a 2-1 defeat of Blackpool last week. They have been able to bask in the glory of first place for seven long days and reflect on what they have so far achieved, but manager Justin Edinburgh (pictured) will have been keeping them grounded and telling them what United have done over the last week or so, which was take four points from trips to Chesterfield and Sheffield United, scoring six goals in the process. That is his job, but before we get too carried away with those results, my job is to pick holes in them, if holes are indeed there to be found !
Ahead of the latter, I wrote about how Chesterfield played almost the entire first game with ten men..............
The visitors are operating on a different level to the hosts and have tight budgetry restraints, they have conceded 12 in their last 4 competitive starts and the three they shipped at Chesterfield on Saturday give real cause for concern, as the Spirites played over 75 minutes with ten men and United only equalised very late when the home side just ran out of energy. Trips to Chesterfield and Sheffield United back to back are tough regardless of how many men they faced at the weekend and they conceded seven to Sheffield United in two defeats last season, losing 4-1 here in February.
They rode their luck there and did so again at Bramall Lane where they won 3-2, United felt it should have been 6-2 or something similar and on the morning after the game I spoke about this ...... most disappointing of all was the loss for Sheffield United, they were all over Colchester at 2-2 and missed a host of big goalscoring chances and not just the penalty, so much so that main striker Billy Sharp went onto the club's player site after the game to apologise to supporters for the number he personally missed, which I can never recall happpening before.
I do not think that those results are a true reflection of what happened last week, defensively United have been poor and conceded 14 in five starts and if they had faced 11 players last Saturday and the Blades taken their chances in midweek it would have been far more, is a very worrying trend. There are only so many times you can concede 2-3 goals and take points, three times inside eight days would be too much and they are going to have to tighten up this afternoon to take anything from this. However, a squad lacking real depth will be pushed to the limits and road games against two really strong teams and now hosting the league leaders are about as tough an ask as possible, especially as the Gills are better rested and have only conceded four goals in seven starts , so hard to see a houdini act from the hosts if they are as porous at the back today and they are not helped in that regard with the suspension to experienced left back George Elokobi, in what is a young backline with few real recognised defenders.
1.5 units Gillingham -0.25 ball 2.17 asian line/Sportmarket Pro...... level ball, or the straight away win are perfectly good alternative options.
Good luck.
League 1:Gillingham - Doncaster Rovers (written September 5th)
Gills are "our" team and they have already landed two very nice home wins for us over two of the promotion favourites, ahead of the most recent, a visit from Wigan Athletic, I wrote ....
I am not spending too long on this. Gillingham were our pre season pick for League 1 at massive odds and they are unbeaten through four league and cup starts, posting three wins, including beating pre season title favourites Sheffield United 4-0 here at Priestfield on opening day ( preview for that and my pre season notes can be read below) and also winning away to Bradford City in front of a crowd of well over 17,000 on Tuesday. They simply love to play the bigger clubs and can almost always be relied upon to up their game, something we discussed in detail last month.
Wigan Athletic who were in the EPL and FA Cup winners in 2013 fulfill the criteria of a big name team, especially in League 1 terms and we have to continue to side with the Gills, all the while odds are in our favour, as they might not be for too long ! The Latics played on Wednesday, recording an easy 3-0 win over Scunthorpe United, their first of the season, but the opposition was not up to much and had an off night anyway, this will be much tougher and Athletic have had 24 hours less recovery time, which at this stage of the campaign, when teams are still looking for full match fitness, could be key. Hosts are not going to sit back and boss Justin Edinburgh said:We want to replicate the performance and atmosphere that we had against Sheffield United, we are full of confidence and looking forward to the game.”
They won that 2-0 and were a minute away from a road win at Peterborough last week, but probably best news was that they kept hold of Bradley Dackand all their other young stars in the transfer window, there was a lot of interest in the 21 yo midfielder, but Gills owner Paul Scally made a big statement of intent with his bold comments: “There is no money that would buy Bradley Dack at the moment, nothing at all, all of the players are priceless right now because they are important to what we are trying to achieve. "We are trying to get into the Championship, which makes everyone’s life a lot easier because of the income that generates."
Our 33-1/40-1 to win and 5.0 to finish top 6 in League 1 are now down to 13.0 and 2.5 respectively and whilst there is a long way to go, confidence is not exactly dented by the ambition shown by the owner.
I spoke about the visitors in midweek.....Rovers are down to the bare bones injury wise and there does appear to be some unrest at the club too, to highlight both, Rovers beat Albion 3-0 in the competion last season, scorers were Harry Forrester, Nathan Tyson and Richie Wellens, the first two are injured , Wellens has apparently put in a transfer request, fallen out with boss Paul Dickov and refused to play at the weekend. Short of options they can ill afford to pick up any more injuries before very daunting looking back to back road trips to highflying pair Walsall and Gillingham. Best guess at squad tonight from supporter sites includes six teenagers, who are basically youth team players and another two just a shade older, five of these eight might well start .
They could not beat and were largely outplayed by a Burton Albion side who rested six regulars and are still short of options today and the trio named above have not travelled. Gills have had the benefit of a free midweek and that has enabled them to get Emmanuel Osadebe, Cody McDonald and Doug Loft, who all played at least 60 minutes in a development game on Tuesday, fit and available for selection and the hosts have a fully fit squad apart from Aaron Morris , who is only a week away from returning. Home side are still being under estimated and we have to stick with them all the while that is the case.
1.5 units Gillingham -0.5 ball 2.18-2.25 general quote.
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