Gillingham (0) 1 Jackson 57
Aston Villa (1) 2 Milner 13, 79 (pen)
Att. 10,107
Entrance: £22
Programme: £4
Mileage: 45/3,956
Match Report
The final whistle had barely sounded when the mobile phone offered up its first text: Wot a shame they did u proud. The texter had it right, they had certainly done us proud.The scoreline shows just how close Gillingham had run the fourth-best side in the country and it had taken a dubious penalty to achieve that result. Ashley Young, who had not taken too much to take a tumble all afternoon, was challenged by Adam Miller and down he went. James Milner stroked home the penalty and the dream of a replay that we had cherished for 20 minutes disappeared.
Aston Villa had turned up without Gareth Barry and Gabriel Agbonlahor, but this was also a seriously weakened Gillingham side and one look at the bench that resembled a creche was an indication of how badly the home side were stretched.
A sterling effort from groundsman John Plummer had managed to get the pitch to kick off time frost-free and without the need of a pitch inspection. An earlier inspection of my own lawn had decreed that no game would be played on my patch of grass.
Hearty renditions of the the Last Waltz and Home of the Shouting Men had a packed Priestfield Stadium in full voice as the teams took to the field for a Third Round tie in front of ITV’s cameras.
It was against the run of play when Villa went ahead on 14 minutes. Adam Miller was caught in possession following a poor pass from makeshift centre half Mark Bentley, had Garry Richards been available the ball was bound for Row Z. Milner scored with a quality finish. This was going to be the difference in class it was felt, one half chance and the Premiership side had taken it.
It was easy to suspect that Gillingham would fold and the scoreline could be as mountainous as Mark Stimson had foretold given a bad set of circumstances. But none of it, by half time the home side had carved out a couple of chances and it took a last ditch tackle from Zat Knight to stop Simeon Jackson and Nigel Reo-Coker picked up a booking when he sent Dennis Oli sprawling on the edge of the penalty area.
On the hour came the moment we had dreamed. Jackson, who had looked so tiny in comparison to the towering Knight and Curtis Davies, finally wriggled clear and from just inside the box spectacularly beat Brad Friedel. Priestfield erupted, game on!
Villa then showed Premiership quality in closing the game out, Gillingham had a lot of the possession but were unable to test Friedel to any great extent and then came the penalty that broke our hearts. It was clearly debateable and a television viewing has not convinced me of its validity. As a supporter of a lower division club it was the kind of decision that we believe always falls the direction of the Premiership clubs. But mostly it was sad, because Gillingham did not deserve to be beaten in such a soft manner, they had earned a second pay day at Villa Park and their fans had similarly earned their big night out.
In front of the TV watching nation, Gillingham not only avoided any embarrassment, but showed enough quality to give real hope for the rest of the League Two season, whether they can similarly raise their game for likes of Grimsby and Chester is going to be the test.
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