Gillingham hold on for vital 3 points

By Jack Nolan
September 9 2006

Gillingham have moved 10 points clear of bottom place Rotherham after vital away victory over Doncaster. The Gills took the lead nine minutes into the game through an Andrew Crofts header. Flynn then doubled Gillinghams advantage but just before that Jackman got sent off for a second yellow.

Mark Bentley returned to the Gills side and new loan signing Scott Flinders made his Gillingham debut for the big confidence boosting victory at Belle Vue.

Gillingham took just nine minutes to break the deadlock when Andrew Crofts headed home from Brent Sancho's cross. After good work by both Matt Jarvis and Brent Sancho, Sancho got the ball into the box for Andrew Crofts to head into the bottom corner of Doncaster's goal.

Jackman then saw red for the Gills after two yellow cards. The first coming on 10 minutes for unsporting behaviour, he then recieved his marching orders on the half hour mark following deliberate handball.

The Gills bounced back though and got the boost needed after 39 minutes. Matt Jarvis was brought down after good work in the box by Stephen Roberts. Confident captain Mike Flynn stepped up to take the penalty and smashed it into the top left of the goal going in off of the crossbar.

Skippper Flynn could have easily made it three after latching onto Jarvis' cross, only to see his effort deflected wide on the hour mark.

It was a very nervy finish for the Gills after Sean Clohessy was unlucky to put past debutant 'keeper Scott Flinders.

So the Gills held on to go back to Kent with three very important points. It has put the Gills just five points off of the play-offs after the Gills' first away win of the season. The Gills don't play now until Tuesday week when Millwall come to Priestfield.

RONNIE'S REACTION:

Following Gillingham's impressive away victory against Doncaster, Ronnie Jepson spoke of his delight after the Gills battled on with 10 men to go home with three massive points. The Gills boss told BBC Radio Kent, "I thought we were a credit to the shirt today, we stuck to the task, a lot of things conspired against us, with being reduced to ten men, losing Brent at half time, and the fact Mark Bentley hadn't really trained all week, but I thought he came in and di a job for us today, it was a credit to the lads."

Danny Jackman picked up two yellow cards and Ronnie thought the first of those two cards was harsh. Jepson said, "I thought the first yellow was harsh, the second one was a booking, I've got no complaints about the second, but I thought the first one, after Jarvis was brought down and the lad wasn't booked, you have to ask questions.

"We deserved that with 10 men, I mean you saw Flynny and we could have gone 3-nil up with ten men and we kept creating chances, I was really impressed."

Gillingham signed Scott Flinders on loan from Crystal Palace on friday and Jepson was impressed by his new signing. Jepson said, "He has a good presence and collected one or two things for us, a couple of saves he pulled off were fantastic, and hopefully he'll be a good addition to the squad."

On the overall performance of the game Jepson said, "I couldn't really pick one player out today, there was effectiveness in abundance, I mean no-one fancied us coming up here, they've spent a lot of money and have got a good squad, but as I told the boys in our meeting we've just got to believe in ourselves, they've done that, and I couldn't be happier."

Millwall are next up for the Gills at home and Ronnie will be hoping that Gills build on the impressive away victory today. Ronnie said, "There's some very tired bodies, we'll have a head count tomorrow morning and assess things, there's one or two with niggles, but yeah, we've got two home games on the spin and hopefully we can get something out of them."