Gillingham 0 Scunthorpe United 3

Match 31/14/1140 - Saturday, 11th October 2014 - League One

Gillingham (0) 0
Scunthorpe United (1) 3 Madden 41, Bishop 72, McSheffrey 90+3
Att. 7,042

Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3.00
Mileage: 54/2,229

Match Report

Every club has a low point in their season; it is just a question of degree. For Chelsea, it might be that they lose in the semi-final of the Champions League or for Maidstone, they might already have had their low point when they were beaten at Tonbridge (tee-hee). For Gillingham, I desperately hope that this defeat against Scunthorpe United was their nadir because if they are to sink to a depth lower, then I don’t want to be around to see it.

The situation coming into this game was nothing new to Gillingham. An opposition without an away win all season and manager-less following the midweek sacking of Russ Wilcox after a run of four successive defeats. We’ve been there before, and more often than not, it ends in tears.

Gillingham’s defence was short of the services of Kortney Hause, who was on England Under-20 duty whilst Stephen Bywater retained the goalkeeper’s jersey despite the midweek heroics of Stuart Nelson, returning from injury sustained in the first game of the season.

It started well enough, Scunthorpe were opened up down the right hand side leaving Cody McDonald with a scoring opportunity, albeit from a tight angle, but he crashed his shot into the side netting.

And from that point, it went progressively downhill. Gillingham had their warnings, the visitors were picking them off on the break and made chances, one of which being a disallowed goal when Paddy Madden headed in at the far post.

Whilst Gillingham laboured in midfield, misplaced passes aplenty, they managed to draw a fantastic save from Bobby Olejnik, who tipped over the bar a header from Luke Norris.

One suspects that frustration was the root of a very poor challenge from Gillingham’s captain Doug Loft that brought a straight red card. If nothing else, the crowd’s reaction as Loft’s studs made contact with the shin of Luke O’Neill, gave the game away and the referee was left with very little choice.

The period between the sending off on 34 minutes and half time was one in which things went from bad to worse. A straight pass from Sean McAllister, dissecting the centre backs and inside Joe Martin, allowed Madden to round Bywater and slide the ball into an empty net before Gillingham’s manager, Peter Taylor, was sent to the stand following the throwing of an empty water bottle that supposedly bounced out of the technical area.

If ten men are usually galvanised by adversity, it didn’t happen for Gillingham. Scunthorpe used their man advantage to great effect, controlling the weakened midfield and counter attacking dangerously on regular occasions.

A cross from the right, following a short corner, was headed in by Neal Bishop after 72 minutes, who was allowed time and space to make an unchallenged run into the six yard box to score. It was woeful defending.

Amine Linganzi, a second half substitute for the totally ineffective Josh Pritchard, brought another wonder save from Olejnik, in a rare moment of Gillingham ingenuity, before a pass between the centre backs from Deon Burton saw Gary McSheffrey race clear and round Bywater to complete the rout.

Perhaps this was an accident about to happen. It is almost a fact of history that when Gillingham induce a decent attendance by virtue of a ticket offer, they invariably fail on the pitch, Kids for a Quid had boosted the crowd to 7,000-plus on this occasion.

But the fact is three successive defeats and no win in four has left Gillingham sitting perilously above the bottom four only by virtue of goal difference. I guess many would have already reached the conclusion that this is going to be a season of struggle, but if this game is not to be their low point then the outcome is going to be significantly worse.