Late show denies Gills again

By Jack Nolan
October 8 2006

Gillingham once again conceeded late on to having been 3.1 up to lose 4.3 at Gresty Road. The Gills took the lead after a left footed thunderbolt from Alan Pouton upon his return to the side then Mickey Flynn found the net for his fourth of the season, McDonald scored the third.

Crewe Alexandra v Gillingham
Gresty Road
8/10/2006

Gillingham threw away a three goals to one lead on Saturday to end up leaving Crewe empty handed.

The Gills took the lead following a stunning strike from Alan Pouton on twenty minutes. The ball fell to Pouton from twenty five yards out, and upon his return to the starting line-up his left-footed shot took a slight deflection and gave Williams no chance of stopping it.

The Gills then doubled their adavantage eight minutes later when Mickey Flynn scored his fourth goal of the season. McDonald found Flynn on the edge of the box who's shot ended up in the top right corner of the Crewe goal.

The Gills were two up and sensed an end to Gillinghams 30 year hoodoo without a win at Gresty Road. But Crewe were back in the game ten minutes from the break when a mistake from McDonald lost the ball in midfield and a through ball picked out Crewe's top goalscorer Nicky Maynard who cooly slotted past Gillingham 'keeper Scott Flinders.

But Gillingham then restored their two goal advantage over Crewe minutes before the interval. Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu's low cross on the edge of the box found McDonald who cooly fired home into the top left corner of the net.

The Gills went in at half-time three goals to one up and looking promising. But many Gillingham fans were not getting carried away with memories of visits to Bradford and Leyton Orient still frustrating the Gills fans.

The Gills went out after half-time carrying on their impressive work from the first half. Mark Bentley had a good chance on 55 minutes, only to see his effort go high over the bar. Dean McDonald then had a good chance to double his tally on the hour mark, forcing a good save by Crewe 'keeper Ben Williams.

But the beginning of another frustratin away day for Gills began when substitue Rodney Jack got Crewe back into the game. Jack's impressive 30 yard effort beat Scott Flinders between the Gills sticks to put Crewe just 3.2 down.

The Gills though thought that they may just hang onto the three points before Mark Bentley's poor clearence gave away a corner which was meet by O'Donnel to equalise for the Railwaymen.

Then though Gillingham once again got complacent and conceeded a fourth in the fourth minute of added time. Varney fired home after poor defending to once again frustrate Gills fans. Gillingham will have to sort it out as they host Nottingham Forest twice in three days at Priestfield next week. Although Forest were thrashed four nil at the City Ground on Saturday to Brian Laws Scunthorpe.

Views:

Ronnie Jepson: It happens too many times for my liking and I can't repeat what I just said in that changeroom, but I'm disappointed with that second half performance," said Jepson on BBC Radio Kent.

"Coming here, setting up the wway we did, we did our homework, the staff has worked extremely hard during the week, out and about doing this that and the other, the lads knew exactly what their jobs were today, they did them for 55 minutes, then went back into their shells again, and it happens way too frequently for my liking. I'll change it round, get people in and get the lads in that can do that job. I'm always looking to strengthen, but until I've got the chance to get people in we'll do with what we've got. At the end of the day we tried, but a game of football's for 90 minutes and over the last few performances we haven't been able to sustain it for 90 minutes. The fitness levels are quite high, I think mentally one or two were a bit weak at times and need to take a look at themselves and be honest with themselves and get on with the jobs which they are paid for."

Dario Gradi: "I said to them at half-time that I thought it was 1-1 really. They had scored two wonder goals and you can't really cater for that. But we had had several chances and I thought we would get several more, but that we needed to pass the ball better. We got a bit better, but the two boys in the middle of the park had a bit of a torrid time with the quality of their play. But having said that you cannot fault them for effort, and they are both absolutely out on their feet. I don't think there is anyone out there on the pitch who Gary (Roberts) hasn't tackled except the referee! We had a little bit of luck to score goals like that at the end, but they probably had a little bit more luck than we did with the two wonder strikes they scored!. But the boys always have belief. They showed great fighting spirit and all I had to say at half-time really was to play with your heads and not your hearts. "The quality wasn't great, but it was definitely exciting. Thats because these are a very exciting bunch of players. The only downside was the loss of Billy Jones through injury, with the teenage defender limping out after the first 45 minutes. It was the last thing we needed at half-time. 3-1 down and then losing a defender. But I thought Julien (Baudet) did really well there. He isn't going to play that role the same way as Billy does there, but he still played it well."

Stats: Gillingham dominated the possesion at Gresty Road 53% to Crewe's 47%. Gillingham had 14 shots to Crewe's 13, with 8 of the Gills' shots on target to Crewe's 7. Gillingham commited ten fouls to Crewe's seven with both sides getting a player booked, Clint Easton for the Gills.