If we were playing Torquay tomorrow.................

[Marvo]

You lot are delusional, 5 years isn't enough, lets give him another season and let lads with real promise like Jacobs sit on the sidelines.

I give up, there really isn't any hope for you.

PS: I guess you're the same guys saying give Gray more time when I was calling for his head five months BEFORE we were relegated.

[ntfc_alex]

If you have a look at the line ups I posted, both included Jacobs and left out Gilligan. You keep going on about him being here 5 years. Who gives a sh*t how long he has been here, all I care about is how he played last year. He scored 11 league goals, a good return for any central midfielder and was our 2nd top scorer. No, he isn't the most technically gifted player, but he works hard, plays with passion and delivered last season, what more can you want from the lad?

[Tyler]

Exactly, some people need to decide what they want. They blah on about how we need players who commit and always give 100%, such as Gilligan but then moan because he isnt the best player on the face of the Earth! 11 goals last season from midfield is only 4 less than all strikers put together excluding Bayo, what else do you want?

[4everdelayed]

Also, if Gilligan contributing 11 goals in a season is 'nothing of note', I'd love to see your arguments for Osman/Davis getting into your side.

[Marvo]

Four of those goals were penalties so it's actually 7 from open play.

His record for the club is 23 goals in 178 games, the 76th best out of the 83 players who have scored more than 20 goals for the club. I would imagine he would be last if he hadn't been the panalty taker.

No scrub that, he wouldn't of course have reached 20 goals.

He's not very good, we can and should have better. Try to get your head around that!

[Winslow Lee]

11 goals last season from midfield is only 4 less than all strikers put together excluding Bayo,

Mckay 8
Guinan 7
Herbert 2
Harris 1

Thats 7 less?
Also if you take away the penalties his goals to minutes on the pitch ratio is probably no better than Guttridge, Davis, Dyer or Johnson

[ntfc_alex]

Marvo, why do you obsess about how he has done throughout his career here. What difference does it make? All that matter is last season. Alot of those appearances came in League 1, which we all agree is a level to high for him, and also came when he was very young. 23 goals in 178 games looks sh*t, but 8 from 42 looks a lot better. Last year, he had a very good season for us, played with commitment and passion and he contributed a lot.

[4everdelayed]

Forgot that penalties don't count, silly me!

Also, according to soccerbase his goals-to-game ratio overall in his career is the best of any of our midfielders.

[Tyro]

I hope he is practising taking penalties very hard in training please

[Tyler]

Mckay 8
Guinan 7
Herbert 2
Harris 1

Thats 7 less?

Also if you take away the penalties his goals to minutes on the pitch ratio is probably no better than Guttridge, Davis, Dyer or Johnson

Did Guinan get 7? Offy said 4 so i went with that

[Tiki-Taka]

I am very happy to out myself as a Gilly fan and I think anyone who has played football at a decent level will appreciate what he offers the side.

He is the only midfielder that we have who has the appreciation, fitness and desire to run beyond our front men. It is no coincidence that he benefitted most from Bayo as Gilly knew that as soon as the ball was on it's way to Bayo he could gamble and make a run into enemy territory. He does not have to receive the ball each time he makes the run as his movement alone increases the likelihood that our front men and wingers will find themselves with a bit of space in which they can hurt teams.

Wedderburn and Osman don't do this naturally. Thornton is keen to make forward runs but then struggles to get back into position if we loose position making it hard to play him in the middle of the park particulalry ina 4-4-2 formation or away from home.

Gilly has also matured into someone who can be trusted to sit in front of the defence, win the ball and give it simply and effectively to a teammate. Wedderburn and Osman are naturally better at this but Gilly is more than adequate also.

The other thing I respect Gilly for was that when the side were poor at the start of the season (and Gutts was not available) he was the only midfielder who was making him available for a ball to his feet. The others all went missing as they didn't want s***e from the crowd if they made a mistake. The bravest thing to do on a football pitch is to have the ball at your feet and when the chips were down Gilly was the only one with the balls to do it.

So whether it is 4-4-2 or 4-5-1. Gilly has a starting place in the centre of my midfield.

[Son Of Geoff]

He came here in 1995 and managed 25 appearances

Yeah been playing for the club a good 15 years and the lad is still only about 23! He has had a remarkable career!

You may need to learn how to read. 

I read it the same. What am I missing?

[Marvo]

You're missing a two, a zero, then another zero. On the other hand you've gained a one and two nines.

[DrillingCobbler]

I am very happy to out myself as a Gilly fan and I think anyone who has played football at a decent level will appreciate what he offers the side.

He is the only midfielder that we have who has the appreciation, fitness and desire to run beyond our front men. It is no coincidence that he benefitted most from Bayo as Gilly knew that as soon as the ball was on it's way to Bayo he could gamble and make a run into enemy territory. He does not have to receive the ball each time he makes the run as his movement alone increases the likelihood that our front men and wingers will find themselves with a bit of space in which they can hurt teams.

Wedderburn and Osman don't do this naturally. Thornton is keen to make forward runs but then struggles to get back into position if we loose position making it hard to play him in the middle of the park particulalry ina 4-4-2 formation or away from home.

Gilly has also matured into someone who can be trusted to sit in front of the defence, win the ball and give it simply and effectively to a teammate. Wedderburn and Osman are naturally better at this but Gilly is more than adequate also.

The other thing I respect Gilly for was that when the side were poor at the start of the season (and Gutts was not available) he was the only midfielder who was making him available for a ball to his feet. The others all went missing as they didn't want s***e from the crowd if they made a mistake. The bravest thing to do on a football pitch is to have the ball at your feet and when the chips were down Gilly was the only one with the balls to do it.

So whether it is 4-4-2 or 4-5-1. Gilly has a starting place in the centre of my midfield.

I have not played football at a decent level, far from it!  BUT I agree with your post 100%. I've seen enough tossers represent our club during the last few years. And Gilligan isn't one of them. A hard working player who makes the most of the talent he has. Comparable in many ways to Robbie Savage. And he's still very young and could well get a lot better.

[NTFC Nut]

Gilly is a decent midfielder at this level, his goal tally and performances last season prove that, but we have three other central midfielders in Wedderburn, Osman and Thornton who are, frankly, better, plus Jacobs to come through in the next season or two. If we lose one of those 4 in this transfer window or in January then Gilly would be a good option to step into their shoes, but until that happens he will not get as much game time as he would like and at a club with a streched budget and a squad crying out to be strengthened in other departments, I suspect Gilly may become surplus to requirements this season.

[ntfc_alex]

but we have three other central midfielders in Wedderburn, Osman and Thornton who are, frankly, better

Wedderburn hasn't played a competitive game for us yet, how did you come to that conclusion?

[NTFC Nut]

I've seen him in other games where he's played well, not least the game he played against us for Hereford last season, where he and gilly were actually "opposite numbers" so to speak for that game and I think it's safe to say Wedderburn won that head-to-head.

[ntfc_alex]

If we're going by that logic, we should trade the entire Hereford XI for ours, as they beat us all over the pitch.

[ClaretCobbler]

To be fair to gilly, when he came on against Coventry, i thought he looked comfortable...

My team to play against Torquay:


GK: Walker/Loanee

RB: Johnson

CB: Beckwith & Holt

LB: Hall

RM: Jacobs

CM: Gilligan, Wedderburn and Thornton

LM: Davis

CF: Purcell.

[Fred_NTFC]

My opinion is somewhere inbetween the consensus on this thread - Gilligan is a rather average player who happened to have a decent season last time around. All average players have decent spells. He has immproved though, but is completely lacking in things like craft and vision. I'd also be interested to know how many goals we've conceded as a result of him giving the ball away, because I remember quite a number of times where that happened last season.

He's a high-energy, high-intensity performer, the sort that is very good to have in a squad as a 'bits and pieces' player but ultimately I agree with Marvo - whether the likes of Gilligan are starting regularly will probably be a good indication as to where we are headed. He looked out of his depth in League One, and that should hopefully be where we're headed. He's a popular member of the squad, I don't doubt that, but ultimately he is a rather average League Two midfielder. He is a reasonable player to have on the bench, and looking at the potential quality of our midfield this year, that's where he should be.