AFC Bournemouth 3 Gillingham 3

Match 27/11/914 - Saturday, 12 November 2011 - FA Cup 1st Round

AFC Bournemouth (1) 3 Purches 20, Zubar 59, Malone 60
Gillingham (1) 3 Payne J 37, Jackman 71, Kedwell 90
Att. 4,282

Entrance: £15
Programme: £2.00
Mileage: 290/1,996

Match Report

A stirring fight back from Gillingham at League One AFC Bournemouth showed there remains some magic to the FA Cup. A competition, diminished with disinterest by the Premiership and even denigrated by its own association, who choose to arrange England friendlies on the day of the first round of its competition, it is still much-loved in the lower divisions and the first round proper remains the Holy Grail of clubs outside of the Football League.

At 3-1 down with 20 minutes remaining, Gillingham were facing a First Round exit for a second successive season following last season’s embarrassing demise at the hands of Dover Athletic. Whilst that exit was characterised by sheer lack of backbone, if there were shortcomings in this performance, and there certainly were, a lack of character wasn’t among them.

A visit to a club a Division above was never going to be easy and the visitor’s task was made more difficult with the refusal of the parent clubs to allow Jo Kuffour and Frank Nouble to become cup-tied and injuries to goalkeeper Ross Flitney and central defender Garry Richards. On the positive side back from long term absence came Jack Payne.

Gillingham started very brightly, on a carpet of a pitch that was heavily watered before the game (in November, that’s global warming for you!), they passed the ball neatly and with a home defence probably still shell-shocked from conceding six in midweek, they almost allowed Luke Rooney an opportunity following a mix-up after a mere 20 seconds.

Recent weeks have seen Gillingham stung by long range strikes and after 20 minutes they found themselves behind to another of the same. A corner was only cleared as far as the edge of the box and from 20 yards Stephen Purches fired in a shot that cannoned down from the underside of bar and over the line. Buoyed by this success Bournemouth took control of the game and Scott Malone, a loanee from Wolves, was giving Matt Fish a torrid afternoon. The Gillingham full-back had no answer to Malone’s pace and with Chris Whelpdale offering precious little protection the right hand side of the visitors’ back line was hopelessly exposed. Unfortunately the defender was not only being given a runaround by Malone, but was taking vitriolic abuse from an element of the Gillingham support.

At 37 minutes, Gillingham were barely hanging on to their FA Cup lives when Jack Payne fired in a shot from 35 yards that flew over the head of the Cherries’ keeper Darryl Flahavan to the joy and amazement of the Gillingham contingent that amounted to 376. It was a fantastic strike and presented a perfect argument as to why the Elite Player Performance Plan should have got short shrift from the Football League clubs. Jack is nearly 19 and the new rules will not affect any potential transfer fees that might be earned by the club upon his transfer. The maximum amount that a lower Division club would earn under the new EPPP rule is £190,000. If Jack Payne had left Gillingham for that amount then one club has a bargain and the other has been mugged and we all know how that works.

The second half began badly for the visitors and they found themselves two goals adrift on the hour. The first of which was a personal nightmare for stand-in keeper Paulo Gazzaniga, who had to that point had a sound game. A dubious free kick was dropped by the keeper at Stephane Zubar’s feet and the former Plymouth Argyle defender scored from close range.

Worse quickly followed as Wes Thomas was allowed to run half the length of the pitch unchallenged before setting up Malone to crash a shot past Gazzaniga into the roof of the net. The game looked done and dusted for the Gills.

Fortunately, goalkeeping errors were not going to be one-sided and Flahaven offered Gillingham a lifeline with a fumble from a Danny Jackman free kick that allowed the ball to creep into the bottom corner. Andy Hessenthaler had gambled on attacking substitutions with Dennis Oli, Lewis Montrose and Stefan Payne entering the fray and with a minute on the clock remaining it looked as if Payne’s narrow failure to get on the end of a Fish cross might be the final chance. But the never-say-die character emerged and Charlie Lee’s long throw was knocked on by Montrose for Danny Kedwell to bury his shot into the bottom corner before running in celebration to the Gillingham support whose jubilation showed that the FA Cup does really matter.

Special mention must go to Paul Gazzaniga who recovered from his error to keep his side in the game when Bournemouth’s tails were up and Gillingham were left short at the back whilst chasing the game and to Jack Payne who was exceptional considering his two month absence and what a goal to celebrate his return.

In the last three weeks I’ve witnessed enthusiasm for the FA Cup at Redbridge and at Bournemouth, shame on the Association that they belittle the magic of the Cup.

AFC Bournemouth 1 Gillingham 1

Match 05/08/689 - Saturday, 9th August 2008 - League Two

AFC Bournemouth (1) 1 Anderton 42
Gillingham (0) 1 Mulligan 90
Att. 5,377

Entrance: £16
Programme: Too Late
Mileage: 290/475

Match Report

When Gary Mulligan entered the fray three minutes from the end of time the pessimist inside me said that if this is our last throw of the dice, there is only one hope and wasn’t even Bob Hope. Our much maligned striker (for want of a better word) promptly reinforced the opinion when he dragged a shot hopelessly wide. But a couple of minutes later, the ball fell on the edge of the box, Mullers met it first time and it whistled into the top of the net. Salvation had been found from the debris of a truly awful away day.

The traffic problems en-route were an absolute nightmare. Twenty minutes into our journey and we are stationery on the M25,once cleared we make a couple of junctions and once again come to a halt as Radio Five are only reporting the hold up we have left behind. Just get clear of the M25, the world’s biggest car park, and we will be OK we thought. But no sooner we enter the M3 so we are ground to a halt yet again. By this time the sat nav is telling us, you will miss the kick off. Even on the A road leading to Bournemouth we are once again at a standstill and we look across at another car with a Gills fan head-in-hands, the only consolation being no reports of any goals at Dean Court.

Finally at 3.15 we arrive, my brother drops us off as he goes to park the car, we leg it to the ticket office and wait while a youth argues the toss about his season ticket and then to be told that this year it is pay at the turnstile, this day is going from bad to worse.

Despite being in desperate need for a wee(!), we go straight to our seats in time to see Simeon Jackson fire a shot tantalisingly close but wide of the target. He’s already missed a sitter we are told.

We have all read remarks that make excuses for substitutes when they miss a chance stating that they have not attuned to the pace of the game and we found it strange trying to get fully focused following our travel problems. No such problems for the Gills as their sweet passing game was frankly leaving their hosts chasing shadows (if they had been visible on a dull, wet day) for much of the time. But that old failing of not taking chances came back to haunt them just prior to half time. Darren Anderton, showed Jackson and Mark McCammon just how to finish after the Gills pair had had further chances to grab the lead. Anderton’s finish was clinical, once behind Fuller he shrugged aside King and stroked it past Simon Royce with consummate ease. Class is permanent.

At half-time a King’s Ferry coach load of Gills fans finally arrived to make our effort appear to be an early arrival. I particularly felt sorry for another car load that eventually made it at 4.15, I think I would have turned around and given it up.

The pattern of play in the second half followed the first, all Gillingham. Shooting chances came, shooting chances went wide, high and one McCammon effort went off for a throw-in. Despite this, the little and large combination worked well and the number of efforts was rising well into double figures.

As Adam Miller’s number was lifted and Gary Mulligan appeared on the touchline, I couldn’t help myself with a sarcastic comment: “Here comes our secret weapon”. Just a few minutes later I’m screaming, “it’s the secret weapon, the secret weapon”.
This point was less than Gillingham deserved, they held the whip hand for long periods and I would like to think that given the amount of chances Jackson and McCammon fashioned on another day they would have had a couple each. But on and off the pitch it wasn’t quite our day, but then . . .

the ball drops to Mulligan, first time hit . . . “It’s our secret weapon, our secret weapon”!