Gillingham (0) 3 Egan 88, Dickenson 90, Norris 90
Notts County (0) 1 Burke 61
Att. 8,453
Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 56/6,592
Match Report
I was indifferent towards County’s fate and whilst the game remained scoreless and they dipped in and out of the bottom four depending on scorelines coming in from elsewhere I felt happy for the 2,000-plus supporters that had descended on Priestfield in hope that they would see their club survive. After all, with Gillingham, we have been there before and lost the t-shirt.
But once Notts County took the lead with a driven shot from Graham Burke at the near post they become cynical in terms of foul play and time-wasting and quickly lost any sympathy for their situation.
Ten years ago when Gillingham were relegated from the Championship, their following of 5,000 in Nottingham, albeit at Forest, were mocked mercilessly at their fate, so when Gillingham made the game safe in time added with a third goal and the Brian Moore Stand emptied of visitors it felt like pay-back time for that city.
The header to this blog, penned at the beginning of the season, called for Peter Taylor’s minimum requirement to be an improvement. That improvement has been achieved but at the expense of Taylor with much of the credit going to the Gang of Four who oversaw the recovery from the bottom four whilst his successor was being sought.
Justin Edinburgh has maintained the improvement and 12th place is Gillingham’s best finish for 10 years.
John Egan, later to be named as Player of the Year, converted Doug Loft’s cross at the far post to level the score and drop County back into the bottom four and goals in time-added from Brennan Dickenson and an individual effort from Luke Norris sealed their fate.
When the header is written for next season in a couple of month’s time, I’m inclined to believe that more optimistic words than improvement will be used, but with it comes expectations and that is almost a dangerous word.
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