Gills defeated at Vale

By Jack Nolan
December 6 2006

Gillingham were defeated at Vale Park after a very disapointing performance which made Jepson apologise to fans after the game. Jepson was so disapointed with the defeat he went onto a coach taking the Gills fans home to apologise in person.

Port Vale.2.0.Gillingham
Vale Park
5/12/2006
Coco-Cola Football League One

Gillingham failed to score away from Priestfield for the first time in eleven away games after they were disapointingly defeated at Vale Park infront of a low mid-week crowd.

Just short of 200 Gillingham fans made the long trip to Port Vale and were in full voice, outsinging the Vale fans throughout the game.

The hosts took the lead just short of ten minutes when Ross Garders twenty five yards shot was deflected in off of the well offside Danny Whitaker.

Trinidian 'keeper Kelvin Jack had a terrible night with his kicking as he has done all season and one of those miss-kicks cost Gillingham the second goal.

Kelvin Jack's kick found Whitaker who played through Constantine who neatly finished for his 14th goal of the season.

Gills ended up creating plenty of chances but failed to find the net.

Jepo's Views

"I've just told a few home truths in that changing room, that I'm not happy one little bit. Maybe they're a bit tired with the travelling from last Sunday, but that's not an excuse, because the first 20 minutes we dominated without really stepping up which we could have done. We could have gone a bit more. We knew we were playing a team tonight who were on a bad run, so we knew they'd be having a proper go, which they did, but I've got no excuses for my boys tonight because I think it was a game we should have taken something out of, on paper especially.

"They've had a great preparation for this game, the Chairman forked out for us to come up yesterday, we had a good training session this morning down at a local club and we rested up today, and what they put out tonight wasn't good enough for me, my staff, and for the supporters," said Jepo.

About Vale's first goal Jepo said, "It was controversial, it was offside. Every man and his dog saw it was offside. But it's still no excuse for the performance, particularly in the second half. At one-nil I still thought the game was there for the taking, but I wanted a bit of character. I won't name names but one or two players let me down tonight in that part of it.

"It was quite embarrassing to have that amount of corners, and not get your head on some of those things, because even in the Premier League, deliveries like those would be top drawer, you can't get better deliveries from corners. We had 10 corners, the movement was good, the only thing I can question at times is how hungry we are to get on the end of them. They put them in the exact same spot on the training ground and we stick them in. But when you're a player this is where you're in you're zone, out here, not on the training ground. We can show them which we do, we're repetitive on things and we work hard on things. We have to have a look at ourselves as well, but we do it in the right manner, in a professional manner, and you hope your players can take it out onto the park. When you get them in the areas you've worked on, it's disappointing, it's frustrating, and I have to question how much they want to get on the end of things. When I can get players who want to get on the end of things to this club then I will do," he said.

Following the game Jepson tried to track down the coach taking home the supporters to personally apologise. He said, "I just walked around with my assistant to the supporters coach and I was going to go on and apologise and tell them a few things but the coach had gone. So I'll make it known here, I apologise for that performance. They travel all the way up here on a Tuesday afternoon in conditions like that, and they expect to see better, so do I, so does my staff, and so does everybody connected with Gillingham Football Club. I will strive and try to get them what they want, because it's what I want as well, and what me and Mick Docherty work for, and hopefully we can get that," said Jepson. Jepson did eventually find the coach and told the fans that he is going to be bringing in some new faces come January if all goes to plan.