Tonbridge 2 Carshalton Athletic 0

Match 52/09/804 - Tuesday, 16th March 2010 - Ryman Premier

Tonbridge (1) 2 Burchill 28, Long 54
Carshalton Athletic (0) 0
Att. 284

Entrance: £10
Programme: £2
Mileage: 26/6,115

Match Report

Tonbridge suffered through the turnstiles at the hands of Jose Mourinho on Tuesday evening, but those that stayed away to watch, from the comfort of their armchairs, the Special One in Champions League action missed a special goal.

Sam Long will not be featuring on any Champions League highlights this week but his goal was of a quality to grace those auspicious heights. The young winger collected the ball on the half way line, and as defenders backed off, no doubt worried by the pace that had frightened them previously, he let fly from 25 yards with a shot that curled into the top right hand corner for a truly memorable strike.

In recent weeks Tonbridge have moved steadily away for the relegation places and positioned themselves in mid-table, but the congestion around them makes it not unthinkable that a play-off push could still be made.

In this game against Carshalton, the side that ended their play-off hopes last term at Longmead, Tonbridge played football that was pleasing on the eye and deserving of a greater margin of victory. The home side took a first half lead on 28 minutes when Adam Burchill kept his composure, capitalising on a mistake in the centre of the visitors’ defence to run on and slip the ball past the onrushing goalkeeper. Burchill is a young and lively player unable to stake a regular place in the champions-elect Dartford side and Tonbridge are reaping the benefit of a loan spell. Both Long and Burchill were released by Gillingham having been considered “too lightweight”.

Lewes Gonsalves, having survived with a yellow card for a reckless challenge on Kirk Watts in the first half, was no match for the pace of Burchill and when he brought him down on the edge of the box soon after the second goal, the referee had no option but to issue a red card.

Two goals to the good and with a man advantage, Tonbridge were able to stroll through the last 20 minutes playing possession football that must have given much pleasure to manager Tommy Warrilow. Whilst the eye-catching performances came from the flying youngsters, in midfield the steel and aggression of Scott Kinch has allowed Lee Minshull more of a marauding role that better sides than Carshalton will struggle to counter.

Burchill’s loan spell ends imminently, if Warrilow can keep him until the season’s end (and he wins an appeal against a lengthy ban), then Tonbridge may well fly into the play-offs as the form side.

Stockport County 0 Gillingham 0

Match 51/09/803 - Saturday, 13th March 2010 - League One

Stockport County (0) 0
Gillingham (0) 0
Att. 3,894

Entrance: £17
Programme: £2.50
Mileage: 529/6,091

Match Report

Edgeley Park doesn’t rank among the more picturesque of any season’s visits, so if there are a couple of extra photographs to fill the column inches then I apologise but to make a decent report from so little is nigh on impossible.

This relegation six-pointer produced a game of exactly that quality, two sides that had neither the ability to beat each other or the pitch of a freshly ploughed potato field variety. If Gillingham Anchorians ever scale the heights of the rugby union pyramid, I hope that the chairman of the time would not tempted into any ground sharing scheme on the evidence of Stockport’s (and Sale Sharks) grassless patch.

Gillingham (football club that is) might point to a denied penalty appeal as reason that they did not come away with the three points, but County could counter that argument by contesting that they forced Alan Julian into more saves and a man of the match performance. Fact is neither side did enough to deserve full points.

The visitors were put under early pressure with Richie Partridge posing problems but there were no finishes that caused Julian any concern. Meanwhile, Gillingham were struggling to come to terms with a pitch that started to cut up from the first minute. Despite a weather forecast that indicated a warmer day than of late, on an open terrace with a sharp wind and light rain, not only the football made for uncomfortable viewing.

The one talking point of the first half was the denied penalty appeal for a foul on Andy Barcham. This was the clearest view that I’ve had of such an appeal this season. Unobstructed and from only about 15 yards away I’ve no doubt whatsoever that the Stockport defender took the man and not the ball, as referee Foster must have adjudged.

The viewpoint also offered the opportunity to see the difficulty the pitch imposed as Barcham and Adam Miller were both made to wait the ball to settle as it bobbled continuously whilst setting for a shot at goal that never came.

The second half followed much the same pattern as the first. Stockport made the most of the running with Partridge and George Donnelly to the fore and Julian was forced into a series of eye-catching, but mostly comfortable, saves. Simeon Jackson flashed a long range shot narrowly wide that had many of the 350 assembled Gills fans believing he had found the net as it rattled the stanchion.

Jabo Ibhere, who had been a handful, but well marshaled by Darren Dennehy, pictured, and Garry Richards, ballooned a shot high over the bar from 12 yards to ably sum up the woeful nature of the quality on show.

On Sunday morning my sister-in-law asked if I had a good trip yesterday. Knowing she has absolutely no interest in football, I made the following analogy: If you travelled a round trip of 530 miles to see your favourite singer and on the night, she sang none of the songs you liked and the ones she did, she sang out of tune . . . You lost then, she replied.

Cue the pictures . . .

Gillingham 2 Huddersfield Town 0

Match 50/09/802 - Thursday, 6th March 2010 - League One

Gillingham (1) 2 Jackson 6, 46
Huddersfield Town (0) 0
Att. 5,388

Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 45/5,562

Match Report

For television viewers of a certain vintage there used to be a very watchable programme entitled “Tales of the Unexpected”, this afternoon at Priestfield we watched our own Tale of the Unexpected.

I certainly wasn’t risking a brass nickel of my mortgage on Gillingham earning even a point against a high-flying Huddersfield Town. There may have been reason to speculate following the Yorkshire side’s battering at Southampton in midweek and their away record was only average, but still the odds against were too great for my pennies.

Also unexpected was the nature of the visitors’ performance. My expectation was one of a footballing side that would have too much in attack for Gillingham to withstand. After all, their goal tally of 69 is greater than both Leeds and Charlton. What we actually got was a team of cloggers that ended the game a man light and could easily have been further depleted.

On a surprisingly cold March afternoon, Gillingham started the game at a hot pace and there was early controversy as Terriers’ keeper Alex Smithies brought down Simeon Jackson some 35 yards from his goal, fortunately for the goalkeeper the referee deemed a yellow an adequate punishment. What Smithies was doing so far from home only he would know.

Rene Howe had two opportunities to open the scoring and should certainly have done better with the second attempt as he shot weakly straight at Smithies when through on goal. But the hosts were not to be denied as a scorching Jackson effort from 30 yards into the bottom right corner put them a goal to the good after seven minutes.

Huddersfield’s leading scorer Jordan Rhodes was fortunate to escape with a yellow card when he appeared to strike Gillingham keeper Alan Julian in the throat as they contested a high through ball.

Tempers boiled over five minutes later following a horrendous challenge by Nathan Eccleston on Stuart Lewis. The referee instantly brandished a red card as players squared up to one another in search of retribution. Lewis eventually climbed to his feet and played on, but it could so easily have been major injury to the full back.

Despite their opponents being down to 10 men, Gillingham were relieved to see a Garry Richards deflection go millimetres wide and were also grateful when Rhodes got in the way of a Lee Novak shot.

Just 20 seconds of the second half had elapsed when Rene Howe nodded on Darren Dennehy’s clearance and Jackson sped into the area to calmly slot home. It was a really good finish, my eye line was good the see the ball bobbling about on a poor surface as he steadied to make his shot.

Rene Howe, whose link play was good, unfortunately didn’t have the best of afternoons in front of goal as another couple of chances were wasted before being substituted in the 73rd minute by Dennis Oli.

Jackson had several good chances to secure his hat trick including an effort that produced a double save from Smithies. Meanwhile, Julian was called upon to make a good save from Theo Robinson and Gary Roberts hit a post, but Gillingham richly deserved their unexpected victory.

England 3 Egypt 1

Match 49/09/801 - Wednesday, 3rd March 2010 - International

England (0) 3 Crouch 56, 80 Wright-Phillips 75
Egypt (1) 1 Zidan 23
Att. 80,602

Entrance: £25
Programme: £6
Mileage: 100/5,517

Match Report

As this is a Matchday blog I’ve not had the opportunity to cover the sorry tale of John Terry, his tangled love life and its impact on England’s World Cup hopes.

So for historical purposes here is a potted version of the soap opera that has dampened England’s expectations of success in South Africa. Footballer gets an injunction against a national newspaper that threatens to expose a wrong-doing; newspaper gets injunction overturned and Terry is alleged to have had an affair with ex-partner of team mate Wayne Bridge; Capello ditches Terry as captain; the cuckolded Bridge decides to remove himself from the squad.

On the field, Rio Ferdinand was made captain, but was injured, so the armband passed to Steven Gerrard (who passed the armband to Wayne Rooney when he was substituted, who passed the armband to Gareth Barry when he was substituted) and Leighton Baines took over the left back spot from Ashley Cole, who was injured, but embroiled in his own domestic problems, following the plot so far!

As the controversy surrounding Terry gathered pace, his form also faltered thus he came into the game facing greater scrutiny than ever before. Wayne Rooney had made a rather futile attempt to try and stop England fans from booing their ex-captain, but in truth Terry was not the first, and won’t be the last, England player to face abuse from a Wembley crowd, remember the crap that was heaped upon Gary Neville in the past. As it happened there were boos when his name was announced and when he touched the ball for the first time, hopelessly misplacing a pass, but when a bigger number retaliated and sang his name his detractors were quickly quietened. After the shaky start, he went on to play a reasonably good game.

Egypt were a pleasant surprise. In the first half they were well worth their goal lead and were technically very good against an England side that was struggling to find any sort of cohesion. Up front, Mohamed Zidan was a constant threat and when Matthew Upson slipped he took his chance to fire past Rob Green.

Fabio Capello had seen enough in the lacklustre performance to make half time changes. Jermain Defoe, who did very little to enhance his chances of a starting place, made way for Peter Crouch and Frank Lampard, who wasted a couple of good first half chances, made way for Michael Carrick.

Crouch, too often portrayed as some kind of pantomime character, but with a goal scoring record for England to rank alongside the best, quickly restored parity and emphasised his own credentials to his coach. A fine team move ended with Gareth Barry crossing for the lanky striker to sweep the ball home.

Theo Walcott, another that had failed to rubber stamp his plane ticket on the night, was replaced by Shaun Wright-Phillips who went on to pose a constant threat to the Egyptian defenders. After 75 minutes, Essam El Hadary in the African champions goal, failed to deal with a James Milner shot and did even worse with the return shot from Wright-Phillips to give the home side the lead.

Five minutes later and the two substitutes combined again for Crouch to steer the ball home from close range to seal the win following a satisfying second half performance.

Peter Crouch picked up the man-of-the-match for his 45 minutes work and must be a certainty for the squad and certainly enhanced his claims for a starting place. With Aaron Lennon struggling for fitness and Theo Walcott not taking his opportunity to press home his claim, Shaun Wright-Phillips did his cause no harm in his half-hour on the pitch.

Fabio Capello must now be hoping for a quieter run in to the naming of his preliminary squad on 16th May and the final 23 which will be announced on 1st June. The furore surrounding Terry and Ashley Cole will hopefully be shifted from the front pages by an up-coming General Election or perhaps Peter Andre and Katie Price could muster a few column inches to remove any England players from the heat.

Of those on the treatment table, the coach must have everything crossed that Cole, Ferdinand and Glen Johnson are going to return to fitness sooner rather than later and if Wayne Rooney could be wrapped up in cotton wool and told to rest up with Coleen and baby Kai, then the nation would be eternally grateful. But no doubt Sir Alex has other thoughts.

A final thought on the Wembley night would be that a far better than expected crowd of 80,000 created a good atmosphere largely due to the substantial following for the visitors and they watched a far better than expected game.

Tonbridge 1 Kingstonian 0

Match 48/09/800 - Saturday, 27th February 2010 - Ryman Premier

Tonbridge (1) 1 Booth 9
Kingstonian (0) 0
Att. 429

Entrance: £10
Programme: £2
Mileage: 26/5,417

Match Report

Whether there is any fact to the potential investor story at Tonbridge or not, the club is slowly emerging from its relegation threat by its own means within the resources presently available. Second placed Kingstonian were Saturday’s visitors to Longmead and a single goal victory for the hosts was a third win in four games.

A superb 30 yard strike from Paul Booth after nine minutes ultimately won a game in which Tonbridge had more than enough chances to win comfortably but were clinging on at the end despite the Surrey side going down to 10 men with half-an-hour left on the clock.

Perhaps Kingstonian had looked at their relative league positions and felt that this was going to be an easy three points because their whole performance was tetchy with several feuds seemingly going on. Lee Minshull became the target of the away support after a spat in which he had little fault and there was a further altercation between the bench and a Tonbridge supporter following a foul and injury to one of their players.

A bad miss from three yards denied Kingstonian an equaliser and hot on its heels came the dismissal of Lee Hall for a poor challenge on Minshull.

Dartford loanee Adam Burchill was introduced and two good chances fell his way both of which were disappointingly spurned.

The final whistle saw another Kingstonian player shown the red card with the protests continuing as the officials made their way back to the changing rooms. On the strength of this performance a greater discipline, on and off the pitch, is going to be needed should the visitors make the end of season play-offs because they are not going miss out on promotion with any good grace.

Gillingham 1 Leyton Orient 1

Match 47/09/799 - Tuesday, 23rd February 2010 - League One

Gillingham (1) 1 Dickson 8
Leyton Orient (0) 1 Mkandawire 72
Att. 4,753

Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 45/5,391

Match Report

For a few precious minutes, while the fog swirled around Priestfield and night had descended, there was a chink of daylight. Chris Dickson had scored his first goal since his return to the club and a second win on the bounce appeared a distinct possibility. The fog eventually cleared, night continued its passage of time and daylight disappeared.

Following Simeon Jackson’s successful introduction from the bench on Saturday, manager Mark Stimson chose to go with three strikers, a plan far removed from the single, diminutive striker that led the line two home games ago against Tranmere. An attacking line-up but one with other failings.

After the bright start and early goal, Gillingham were forced to concede ground in the middle of the pitch as their three men were simply overrun. As the pressure increased a vast area in the middle was evacuated and the strikers were forced to feed off 60 yard punts forward as the ball sailed over the heads of the midfield trio.

Eventually, despite the slightly controversial nature of the goal, Leyton Orient deservedly profited from a loose clearance by Garry Richards and Tamika Mkandawire, the best player on the pitch, rifled home from 20 yards.

Within the first couple of minutes Rene Howe was sent in on goal by Jackson and fired a shot that narrowly missed at the far post. Five minutes later Jackson raced clear down the right hand side and unleashed a powerful shot that was only parried by O’s keeper Jamie Jones and Chris Dickson was on hand to poach the goal from a couple of yards.

A little spell of confidence followed but somewhere in the mist it disappeared. As Orient took a stranglehold on the game the manager revised his tactics and introduced Dennis Oli and Andy Barcham to hopefully provide some width. But unfortunately the die was cast and the ball continued its merry aerial path largely ignoring the substitutes.

Immediately following the equaliser, Garry Richards was offered the opportunity to atone with a far post header that sadly went narrowly wide. But, by the close, the visitors appeared the more likely of the sides to find a winner and on a night when all the relegation threatened clubs, barring Brighton, below Gillingham lost then perhaps it was a point gained.

Mark Stimson now has the luxury of choice when it comes to strikers but last night proved you cannot play them all.

Gillingham 1 Bristol Rovers 0

Match 46/09/798 - Saturday, 20th February 2010 - League One

Gillingham (0) 1 Jackson 90+2
Bristol Rovers (0) 0
Att. 5,302

Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 45/5,346

Match Report

It was 470 minutes of playing time and in front of just 78 hardy Gillingham souls at Hartlepool when supporters last witnessed the elation of a Gillingham goal. Whether it was joy or sheer relief that greeted Simeon Jackson’s 92nd minute winner is for each individual to recount, personally it was relief that the winless streak of 10 matches was finally brought to an end.

Enough of the stats, as this was the ludicrously labelled homecoming of a Messiah, the Prodigal Son, but in fact no more than a mere mortal, Chris Dickson, the subject of the most drawn out transfer deal in the history of the club. Six months of conjecture and a falling-out between the clubs concerned ended when the striker finally pulled on the Number 15 shirt for this game against his previous loan club, Bristol Rovers.

If Dickson failed to score on his return his presence had a galvanising effect on the Priestfield crowd. Gone was the negativity of the past couple of games and with it a welcome respite for Mark Stimson who was able to call on the services of Rene Howe to partner the returning hero.

In a first half in which the home side made the majority of the running it was Howe that failed to profit from a Dickson pass when he weakly shot straight at Rovers’ keeper Rhys Evans, who would have fielded harder back passes in his time.

Dickson who was busy, but at times appeared to be trying almost too hard, set up another chance for Howe who skied over the bar just prior to the break.

The second half was so one-sided it is hard to believe that the home side had to wait until time added on to seal the points. Howe tested the Rainham End rather than the keeper before he was replaced in a double substitution that brought Jackson and Dennis Oli into the game.

As the chances mounted, Gillingham got closer and closer to a breakthrough without actually managing it. A Danny Jackman free kick was inches wide, Dickson was even closer with a header and with time running out Jackson saw his shot pushed onto the post by Evans. When the resultant corner was blasted into the roof of the Rainham End by Andy Barcham, it appeared that another afternoon was about to come up blank for the home side.

The Rovers’ keeper had been a major irritant with his time wasting and when the board showed just three minutes of added time it seemed less than generous, but it was enough. Adam Miller found Jackson with a long pass and from the edge of the box the Canadian drilled the ball into the bottom corner to cue a celebratory run to his manager on the sidelines. As the rest of the squad joined the celebrations the feeling that unity had returned to the club was almost tangible.

Chris Dickson’s return might not have yielded a goal, but it may well have produced something even more important in the fight against relegation, a sense of togetherness that permeates from the terrace to the boardroom, ironically something that was almost demanded in his programme notes from the chairman himself.