Mills out on loan

To Banbury til January. Inevitable I guess.

Good luck John. Really hope to see you back in the New Year, fully rejuvenated.

Good luck to him.....don’t know what we’ll do if Brunt picks up an injury though....assume we could recall Mills straight away, if needed?
We have lots of players who can play off the front man (Rigg, Stearn, Smith).... but for a striker would have to rely on Watto otherwise.

....my son reminded me we have Ollis and Mann to play off the front man too!

I'm a bit surprised by the timing. Having scored a brace in midweek he proved he can score at a lower level. What he needs to show is that he can score at our level.

But scoring is all about confidence so if he can fill his boots at Banbury maybe he can come back reinvigorated.

Dusty Lynfield wrote:Good luck to him.....don’t know what we’ll do if Brunt picks up an injury though....assume we could recall Mills straight away, if needed?  
We have lots of players who can play off the front man (Rigg, Stearn, Smith).... but for a striker would have to rely on Watto otherwise.

Mills is not a player the others can play off so he isn't a true alternative to Brunt. He is a plan B.

Sensible move.

I don’t think we should get too excited about Mills scoring against Bishops Lydeard - I seem to recall Nick McCootie getting a hat-trick against Wellington and Nat Jarvis got one against the mighty Knaphill last season. That is a bit of a difference to scoring regularly at our level.

It reminds me a bit of the Stuart Fleetwood situation.

As long as Ryan Brunt stays fit, as others have said we have plenty of players who can play off him in the ‘number 10’ role.

Re Mills not being a player others can play off, I agree, what I was saying he is the only other recognised striker of any type (you could say Watto is a striker, but stretching it a bit).
John Mills was was absolutely plan B.....my slight concern is that with the current squad we would have to play “plan C” if Brunt got injured.....and with the other players we’ve got, we are talking about playing “false 9’s”....and you don’t often see that at Conference South level!

LB wrote:I don’t think we should get too excited about Mills scoring against Bishops Lydeard - I seem to recall Nick McCootie getting a hat-trick against Wellington and Nat Jarvis got one against the mighty Knaphill last season. That is a bit of a difference to scoring regularly at our level.

It reminds me a bit of the Stuart Fleetwood situation.

As long as Ryan Brunt stays fit, as others have said we have plenty of players who can play off him in the ‘number 10’ role.

a) which is why having scored against BL he ought to have been given the chance to replicate that at a higher level. Now we may never know. (edit. although to be fair Banbury is a higher level)
b) Nat Jarvis clearly can score at this level. Why he couldn't for us will remain one of the great imponderables.

Mills has never looked fit since he joined (I've been told he was carrying a knee injury, but that might just be rumour), it's all fine and well saying he should have been given a chance at a higher level, but that would mean leaving Brunt (or another attacking player out), if I was Gill I'm not sure I'd take that risk.

Good luck to him at Banbury, but I don't hold out much hope he'll be back and good, off the top of my head the only players who came back from loan and did well were Chris Holland and MWH.

We didn't play in a style that suited Jarvis last year, under Owers he may have been useful, but his skill set doesn't fit the style of play JG wants to play. Not surprised he's scoring at Chippenham after all he scored at Hungerford.

Dusty Lynfield wrote: we are talking about playing “false 9’s”....and you don’t often see that at Conference South level!

or anywhere else.

Jon_BOA wrote:Mills has never looked fit since he joined (I've been told he was carrying a knee injury, but that might just be rumour), it's all fine and well saying he should have been given a chance at a higher level, but that would mean leaving Brunt (or another attacking player out), if I was Gill I'm not sure I'd take that risk.

Good luck to him at Banbury, but I don't hold out much hope he'll be back and good, off the top of my head the only players who came back from loan and did well were Chris Holland and MWH.

We didn't play in a style that suited Jarvis last year, under Owers he may have been useful, but his skill set doesn't fit the style of play JG wants to play. Not surprised he's scoring at Chippenham after all he scored at Hungerford.

Yes agree with you.

If he had been scoring at the same rate as his previous three seasons we would not have been able to leave him out of the starting line up for anyone. I think a few people were excited by his signing, as I was, and are clinging on to the hope that he will come good but you are right, he has not looked up to the pace of this division. For whatever reason.