Gas Humbled By Gillingham

4 more goals were crashed past Sam Walker in the Rovers goal as another defeat was recorded at Priestfield yesterday afternoon.

Rovers' hapless and unorganised defence conceded within a matter of minutes when Tom Parkes felled striker Danny Kedwell in the box. The former AFC Wimbledon man converted the penalty himself as he leathered down the middle of the goal and they may as well have thrown in the towel there and then to be honest. There doesn't seem like any improvements can be made to our defensive performances at present and there must be genuine fears within the club that without Garry Kenneth, Cian Bolger and Danny Woodards we're going to continue conceding goals. After 15 minutes the home side doubled their advantage following a throw-in (which highlights just how hopeless we are at the back currently) when Kedwell netted with a header.

We then began to play a bit of football but without creating any genuine opportunities or even mustering any real efforts on goal. There is such an evident lack of ideas, creativity and spark when we attack that it's no surprise we rarely score goals. Our bad luck continued as Matt Harrold picked up an injury following a collision with goalkeeper Stuart Nelson, meaning he needed to come off. On came Fabian Broghammer and whilst Gasheads were excited to see him get a chance, questions were being asked as to why he didn't start. Lee Brown was yet again deployed in midfield to the bewilderment of Rovers fans - he's played abysmally in every game so far and is clearly a full-back. Why play him out of position when he makes no positive impact?

Right on half-time the Gills countered and scored a third through Charlie Lee and Rovers had lost the game after just 45 minutes. You could look through our team and not see one leader out on the pitch - which is alarming because the young players need experienced heads alongside them to help when the going gets tough. We have no men in our squad. What changes could we make to improve our performance and give our supporters something to shout about?

Oliver Norburn made an appearance from the bench

Well, we brought on Oli Norburn for Jim Paterson. It wasn't the attacking substitute we needed but we just have no other options. The signing of a pacey striker is absolutely essential if we're to climb the table. That's not disrespecting Norburn though, he looked relatively dynamic in his appearance and offered more than Matt Gill or Wayne Brown did in their time on the pitch. There was a bit of huff and puff but with no end product, although Broghammer did force an effort beyond Nelson, only to find a defender on hand to clear it off the line. To compound more misery a fourth goal was conceded in the 82nd minute when sub Chris Whelpdale headed home a Myles Weston delivery. Ouch.

We're effortlessly bad at the moment and desperately require reinforcements. The sooner we can sign some and welcome our injured trio of defenders back, the quicker we may be able to turn things around. Until then the only thing I can see happening is Rovers constantly looking vulnerable at the back and showing no signs of troubling the opposition goalkeeper either. It's incredibly frustrating when we all hoped for so much more in pre-season, but all we can do is continue to get behind the team. Despite the negativity I still think Mark McGhee is the right man to lead us forward but he now must act upon our deficiencies and sign players on loan. Given time, a little bit of luck and an injection of confidence in to his players and I think we will turn things around.

On the plus side we have an immediate chance to record our first win when we play Plymouth Argyle at Home Park on Tuesday evening. The Pilgrims haven't won themselves just yet and whilst it provides us a real opportunity to get our season going, we need to be wary of their desire to earn 3 points on their own patch. It seems almost certain Harrold will miss out and there may be further changes made to the team if loan additions are made before Tuesday. McGhee told BBC Radio Bristol that he would certainly be trying to add to his squad before the game and we all hope he does. Not another young, unproven player thank you Mark!

Come on Rovers.