Gillingham 1 Bury 1

Match 51/10/869 - Saturday, 19 February 2011 - League Two

Gillingham (1) 1 Weston 25
Bury (0) 1 Lowe 72
Att. 5,021

Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 45/7,839

Match Report

No medals are awarded in mid-February, no Divisions decided. But, for the two clubs principally followed by That’ll Be The Day, 19 February 2011 offered an insight as to where their destiny may lie come the first week of May. Gillingham, residing in the play-off positions, but harbouring ambitions of an automatic promotion place, entertained fellow contenders Bury whilst at Longmead there was a match-up between Tonbridge and the leaders Sutton United, who held a 10 point advantage but with their hosts having three games in hand. Another month or so into the season and even more serious consideration would have been given as to which game to attend. Heavy rain had left the Longmead game in doubt, but the power of the season ticket eventually held sway.

A week ago I was raising questions as to whether some of the draws away from home would need to be turned into victories to put Gillingham into an automatic position, another draw, the fourth in six games since the defeat by Chesterfield, confirms the viewpoint. On this occasion, a first half lead was pegged back and most would have left the stadium feeling that Bury would have been particularly hard done by had they left without reward.

Back in the days when Gillingham were scoring four goals away from home and still conspiring to lose games, a visit to Gigg Lane brought a 5-4 reversal, but both sides showed a much greater resilience in defence on this occasion.

The last visitors to Priestfield, Rotherham, enabled the comparison to be made between the Division’s leading scorer, Adam Le Fondre and Gillingham’s in-form marksman, Cody McDonald. On the night, two goals from McDonald and Le Fondre well handled by Gillingham’s central defenders, allowed the home striker to shine the brightest. Yesterday, following the presentation of the Division’s Player of the Month to McDonald, another comparison was on offer between Bury’s Ryan Lowe and himself, and this time it was the visiting striker that took the honours.

On a wet day, Gillingham showed consideration to their visitors, allocating their 142 supporters a block of the Gordon Road stand to shelter from the inclement weather. Those fans were very nearly celebrating after 10 minutes when Lenell John-Lewis scooped over from close range following a right wing cross. Gillingham threatened for the first time when a Danny Jackman free-kick from the edge of the box curled narrowly wide after 20 minutes before Curtis Weston opened the scoring five minutes later with carbon copy of his goal at Crewe the previous week. Jackman played the ball forward and the midfielder, who is beginning to recapture the form that made him a fans’ favourite, cut in from the left, travelled across the face of goal and planted a right foot shot into the bottom corner from around 20 yards.

McDonald had his first opportunity to press his claims shrugging off the attention of his marker but steering his shot wide of the far post, sadly it was a precursor to the outcome of his afternoon.

If the home side had held sway in the first period, the second most definitely belonged to the Lancashire side. Alan Julian was forced into an early save from David Worrall, Jean-Lewis had the ball in the net only to see it ruled offside and Lowe directed a header at the keeper.

So it came as no surprise when the Shakers drew level. First half hero Weston became second half villain when he weakly lost possession on the half way line. Jean-Lewis sent Lowe clear and, although Julian made a partial parry, the ball found its way into the net despite the best efforts of John Nutter.

The home side mounted a big effort in the last five minutes to secure full points and two great chances fell to McDonald, the first, a volley that cleared the bar and finally, a clear shooting opportunity from around the penalty spot that lacked both power and direction allowing the keeper a relatively easy save from such a threatening position. It wasn’t the striker’s day and consequently it wasn't the Gills day, and that could well be acid test as the season winds down, one cannot go cap in hand with other.

Meanwhile, over at Longmead, an ex-Gill, Leroy Griffiths was quite probably executing the coup-de-grace on Tonbridge’s hopes of winning the Ryman Premier with a single goal winner. Play-off places beckon for both clubs, but, then again, this is only February.