Gillingham (1) 1 Oliver 20
Cheltenham Town (1) 1 May 24
Attendance: TBA
Admission: £10
Programme: None
Mileage: 46/1,195
Gillingham, on and off the pitch, appear to be a club in disarray and Steve Evans’ post-match press conference only reaffirmed that supposition.
Ticket sales for this Carabao Cup Second Round tie had not reach four figures 24 hours prior to the game and whilst the attendance figure is presently under wraps, a guess would be there were little more than 1,200 in the ground.
On entry, there were no programmes and the food and drink kiosks under the Rainham End were limited to a single one.
On the pitch, whilst accepting that managers choose to rest players in the League Cup, it seems Evans could only field what he had and when his main goalscorer Vadaine Oliver limped out of the fray at half-time, it fell on the shoulders of central defender Max Ehmer to lead the line.
The game started in a bright fashion with Gillingham the dominant side with Oliver going close before opening the scoring with a far post header from a Olly Lee cross, the big striker climbing highest and out muscling the goalkeeper.
The lead only lasted four minutes when a long ball forward wasn’t dealt with and a pass let in ex-Chatham striker Alfie May to score.
Those 25 minutes were as good as it got from an entertainment point of view and both teams got bogged down in a turgid battle.
It’s almost inconceivable that the second half could plunge to new depths but somehow it did with neither side having the guile to break each other down.
The referee could have seen fit to blow his whistle on 90 minutes rather than submit the meagre crowd to five extra minutes of purgatory, but at least the mandarins at the EFL had the foresight not to inflict an extra 30 minutes but go straight to the excitement of a penalty shoot out. Excitement, this was about as exciting as a Chris Whitty slideshow but somewhat more bizarre.
After Lee had despatched the first penalty, Cheltenham’s Conor Thomas stepped up to send Aaron Chapman to his right whilst rolling the ball left. Stuart O’Keefe saw his spot kick saved by Owen Evans and then for the next four Cheltenham penalties the ball was rolled left while Chapman tumbled to his right, each one seemingly identical to the first.
As the ball trickled over the line for the fifth time, Gillingham supporters departed with no kind words for their chairman and the manager took his cue to fire an unveiled attack on Mr Scally, that suggested that a parting of the ways is only days away.
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