It was a slightly odd feel to the start of the competitive season at the Vic tonight. The League Cup First Round is never going to bring the crowds out in their droves and tonight was no exception so the build up felt very 'friendly'. In fact, for a while it looked like we would have less people through the new flashy electronic turnstiles than we did against Willem II.
I liked this new way of getting in to the ground, in the same way I get childish pleasure out of using my Oyster card on the tube. However I wonder about the sense of being asked to swipe your card for purchases from the food bars. Tonight they were woefully under staffed and the queue especially at half time was ridiculous. Everything should be done to ensure service is as quick as possible and asking people to swipe their card has the potential to be as annoying as Tesco Express checkout staff asking for your clubcard if you are just buying a couple of things.
Given that we in the Upper Rous now have the pleasure of the directors sitting with us I do hope that Graham Simpson or Mark Ashton might occasionally venture to the concourse below them just to see how bad and slow the service at the catering facilities is.
Magically I managed to avoid the cascading rain both on the way in and out, odd considering that for most of the game it poured. Special mention must go to the bloke who sat completely alone in the Gene Kelly stand for most of the game under an umbrella. He wouldn't have found it hard to find a seat in any other area of the ground!
The game didn't really get going until Gillingham were awarded a penalty which Richard Lee saved and the game got going. Is our luck finally changing? Two games, two penalty incidents both going our way!
Watford's Matt Jackson had a great debut doing nothing for 25 minutes before committing a stupid foul which resulted in him getting a nose bleed. He disappeared off down the tunnel and never came back!
Tamas Priskin glanced in a wonderful header and Douglas Rinaldi made it two with a Jordan Stewart-esque deflected free kick.
Just after half time Gillingham had a player sent off and rather than deciding the game was over and treating it like a training session we really went for them with Anthony McNamee looking dangerous every time he got the ball. Will Hoskins was good as well in the centre of midfield. Jordan Parkes then was stretched off with what looked like a nasty injury before Alex Campana scored late on from an excellent McNamee cross.
Best comment of the night came from the kid behind me who was taunting Delroy Facey about his silly name and then said 'It could be worse. He could have been Delroy Faeces'.
All in all it was a thoroughly unexpectedly good match and a much more convincing win than against Wolves, and with 11 changes from the side that played on Saturday. If these are indeed our reserves then the future looks hopeful.
