The Official Accrington Stanley Match Thread (Sponsored by Brandon Hanlon's left boot "for all your first goal of the season needs")

Here we go again! Another year of fourth division football beckons, although it has to be said that the atmosphere around the club is markedly less optimistic than it was prior to the start of the previous two campaigns when talk of promotion abounded only for the team to fail to deliver after very promising starts. Maybe, just maybe lessons have been learned from those failures?

Since our final day 0-1 win at Vale Park that denied the home side the League Two title (shame), there's not been a great deal to shout about on or off the pitch during a fairly quiet summer. Club stalwart Max Ehmer departed after an astonishing 439 games for the club, surprisingly pitching up two divisions lower and just 15 miles down the road at Ebbsfleet. Thanks and good luck there, Max. The departures of Oli Hawkins and Tim Dieng will have drastically lowered the club's wage bill, while Ashley Nadesan returned to Sutton permanently following his season long loan there. Last season's top scorer, Jayden Clarke, also dropped down a level to wear possibly the worst kits of all time at veganistas, Forest Green.

Incoming, we've seen just the four new arrivals, although Andy Smith's pedigree is already known to us given his loan spell last season. Sam Vokes definitely brings experience to the front line, although a badly broken arm in his final game of last season means that we've yet to see him involved in pre-season and he won't feature on Saturday either. Another new forward signing who may not make the squad on Saturday is Seb Palmer-Houlden who has drawn encouraging reviews in friendlies but pulled up in our final game against Dartford and was duly subbed. His injury may not be as bad a first feared, according to GA, but Saturday may yet be too soon. Yesterday's short-term signing of former Blackburn youngster, Lenni Cirino completes the quartet.

Saturday's opponents, Accrington, have also undergone very little in the way of change from last season. Just two permanent signings have arrived from footballing heavyweights Curzon Ashton (Isaac Sinclair - CM) and King's Lynn (Freddie Sass - LB) while Oliver Wright arrives from Southampton on loan between the sticks. Their pre-season has seen them record decent wins against higher division opponents in Blackpool and Rotherham (an impressive 4-1 win last Saturday), and earn a creditable 1-1 draw with Everton. They've suffered two defeats in the warm-ups, a narrow 1-2 defeat to Blackburn and a 2-4 defeat against Wigan, all four Latics goals arriving in the final 25 minutes having been 2-0 down. These results, plus the squad consistency from last season indicate that we're going to need to be somewhere near our best to get something on Saturday.

That said, we've been so average for so long that it's hard to know what our best looks like. The back end of last season saw some solid and effective performances as we scrapped our way to safety under GA, but in none of the three 1-0 wins he achieved could you say we truly dominated. It's been so long since we dominated a game, I've forgotten what it feels like.

Ainsworth does appear to have a first XI in mind to start the campaign, and, Hutton aside, its likely to be the one that started at Dartford on Saturday. Should Seb P-H be ruled out with his hamstring/cramp, his spot will be up for grabs by either Nevitt or Andrews, both of whom have a point to prove in Gills' colours. Nevitt's return of 4 league goals from 35 appearances was not quite the prolific level hoped for after his 16 goal spree for Crewe the season before, whilst Andrews managed more appearances and six times as many goals in a half-season loan for Stanley than he's managed in his 18 months with us. Any improvement in either of those positions will be welcomed with open arms. Joe Gbode remains "one of our own" for now and is starting to show signs that he could have a real breakout season netting in both his final two league games of the last campaign and finding the net three times in his last two friendly matches.

There's a plethora of other players at the club who have shown nowhere near their best consistently, most having had very decent seasons elsewhere prior to their signing for Gills. Armani Little apparently turned in a performance against Dartford having ghosted through matches to that point following a bright start to his Gills' career, the caveat being this was against opponents from three tiers below us. Hutton has improved no end from the sulky misfit seen prior to Ainsworth's arrival and while the re-signing of Bradley Dack may have come as a slight surprise, he was just starting to find his feet by the end of the last campaign and, with a full pre-season behind him, could yet make him an attacking threat that we sorely missed last season.

All that said, there is still room for improvement in the squad, especially out wide and in terms of pace. Given we have no loan signings on the books, this may happen once teams higher up the pyramid begin to crystallise their own first team squads. Almost certainly we'll see some of our own fringe players depart on loan, GA having made no secret of the fact he deems the squad to be too large. Sam Gale's rapid ascent to the first team came off the back of a number of successful loan spells and the likes of Webster, Skipper, Bridle and Holtam all have previous experience of such moves and will likely be off to the great and good of non league as they seek to stake a claim for first team involvement later in the season. Khumbeni and Nolan have both been pushed down the pecking order in pre-season and may also find their chances limited at Priestfield this season and may wish to look elsewhere for regular football.

The head to head then; Saturday sees the 21st meeting of the sides since Accy returned to the Football League in 2006, Gills leading 10 wins to five, with five draws. Last season's late Max Clark penalty equaliser in a 1-1 draw ended an incredible run of five straight Gills wins at the Crown Ground, one of those hopefully being a good omen, arriving as it did on the opening day of the 2018/19 campaign when goals from Brandon Hanlan (84 app/16 goals) and Josh Parker (89 app/18 goals) gave us a comfortable 0-2 win.

Gills should have a fair army of fans in tow this weekend, around 500 tickets have been shifted for this, an excellent effort for one of our longer away days this season. Safe travels to all those attending, my own attendance will be a late decision, the three hour journey time from my Midlands base still seems a trifle excessive for a ground I have visited twice previously, but that could well change come Friday evening after a few beers and the realisation that I've missed live Gills action since my final game of last season away at Chesterfield.

I just had a re-read of the above and wasn't aware that I'd typed so much, but it's nice to be back talking about real football rather than pre-season, politics or pre-ordered kits!

TLDR; Accy v Gills, real football is back!

Enjoy the game and, once again...

COYG!!!