Gillingham 2 Swindon Town 2

Match 80/23/2203 - Tuesday, 13th February 2024 - League Two

Gillingham (0) 2 Hawkins 69 Mahoney 76 (pen)
Swindon Town (1) 2 McGurk 24 McKirdy 90+5
Attendance: 6,090
Admission: £19 Senior
Mileage: 44/5,795

The intense rivalry between Gillingham and Swindon Town of 1979 is now in the past. It is only in the minds of silly old farts such as myself that actually believes there was such a thing, and to be honest, I no longer believe it either.

Those of us of that vintage will remember the tales of Danny Westwood’s unjust red card and the subsequent “assault” on the referee from an old boy with a walking stick; of the tunnel fracas that landed Ken Price and Dean White in Swindon Magistrates Court and the song that said it was “because of Ray McHale”.

Swindon brought 264 supporters, no mean feat on a wet Tuesday evening, but, back in 1979, hundreds would disembark from Gillingham Railway Station to be escorted by the local constabulary to Priestfield with the same for Gillingham supporters at the reverse fixture.

For an hour this game had all the hallmarks of a run-of-the-mill League Two fixture matching the dismal weather as the rain swirled in the floodlights but it exploded into an exciting last half-hour.

Swindon, starting the game in the lower reaches of the division, were efficient and more threatening than their hosts and, despite Gillingham having the ball in the net for a disallowed goal from Conor Masterson, it was no surprise when they went ahead on 24 minutes through Sean McGurk. The ball was lost on the halfway line as Ethan Coleman turned into trouble and a single through ball saw McGurk make his space as the Gills defenders back pedalled to drive his shot past Jake Turner.

Swindon could have feasibly tied the game up in the first half as it took a heroic, last ditch tackle from Shad Ogie, who was injured and unable to continue in the second half, to deny Paul Glatzel, who had rounded Turner.

Gillingham needed an injection of something in the second period and it came in the shape of Watford loanee, Colombian Jorge Hurtado, whose direct running had the fans off their seats and gave the visitors a new problem, to which they had no answer.

Both sides missed huge chances around the hour with Masterson putting a free header against the underside bar from close range, provoking discussion as to whether it had crossed the line and, at the other end, Glatzel was denied by a goal line clearance from Remeao Hutton.

Gillingham were on level terms on 69 minutes when Oliver Hawkins headed against a post, but as the rebound drifted along the byeline, it was retrieved by Max Clark who stood up a cross to which Hawkins dare not miss.

15 minutes remained when Gillingham once again needed a goal line intervention, this time from Max Ehmer, before Hurtado surged from midfield, riding tackles of questionable quality, before being unceremoniously dumped by Frazer Blake-Tracey in the box allowing Connor Mahoney to cooly convert from the spot.

Masterson once more had the ball in the net to be denied by an offside flag but, in the fifth of six added minutes, Swindon’s Harry McKirdy cut in from the left to bury a low shot into the bottom corner to give the Wiltshire side, on the basis of the whole 90 minutes, a deserved point.