Gillingham 1 Leyton Orient 2

Match 45/13/1072 - Thursday, 26th December 2013 - League One

Gillingham (1) 1 Akinfenwa 3
Leyton Orient (0) 2 Bartley 70, Lasimant 90
Att. 8,613

Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 45/4,929

Match Report

The first game of the Festive period saw Gillingham endulge in the true spirit of Christmas, whereby it is better to give than receive. They played the perfect hosts and gifted their visitor's two goals and allowed Leyton Orient to return to East London with three points and retain their position at the summit of the League One table.

After taking an early lead through Adebayo Akinfenwa's third goal in two games, his strike partner Cody McDonald became Orient's Secret Santa and good chances to put the game beyond their reach were frustratingly wasted. It is a reflection of Peter Taylor's tenure so far that back-to-back victories have eluded him and this was once more the fact following Friday's well-earned win at Tranmere.

The storms that brought havoc with fallen trees and flooding to Kent on Christmas Eve led to a slightly elongated journey to bypass the areas that suffered the worst of the flooding but the actual playing surface at Priestfield looked in good condition, if a little soft.

The injury problems that have also been a feature of Taylor's time show no signs of abating and Myles Weston, who picked up a hamstring injury at Tranmere was missing, whilst Danny Kedwell was only fit enough to take a place on the bench following the cancellation of a hernia operation.

Gillingham could not have asked for a better start and, within the first three minutes, McDonald had firstly struck the bar with a header and this was followed by Akinfenwa scoring with a looping header from a Jake Hessenthaler corner.

Hessenthaler and Bradley Dack have been beneficiaries of the injury problems and both are giving performances that are going to make it hard for those missing at present to regain their places when they return to fitness.

Leyton Orient slowly gained a foothold in the game and they were offered the opportunity to gain parity on the scoreboard when they were awarded a penalty following a foul by Leon Legge on ex-Gillingham striker Kevin Lisbie. Stuart Nelson dived low to his right to push Elliott Omozusi's spot kick to safety. Somebody will tell me the true statistic, but I cannot personally remember when Nelson last saved a penalty, so it was easy to believe that this might well be Gillingham's day.

Gillingham should have extended their lead early in the second half when a beautiful through pass from Hessenthaler sent McDonald clear one-on-one with the keeper, but cutting in from the left hand side, but he pulled his shot wide of the post.

Akinfenwa's lack of games forced his substitution on the hour and with his removal the momentum of the game changed completely and, after 70 minutes, Orient found their equalising goal. A corner from the left was met by a firm header from Marvin Bartley, who had made a late, unchallenged run into the box. It was criminal defending that would have brought nothing but despair to the Gillingham management team.

The balance of power shifted entirely with the goal and the league leaders laid seige on the Gillingham goal in search of a winner. Legge managed to clear the ball from the line before, as the clock ticked into the time added on, the O's skipper, Nathan Clarke, launched a huge cross into the penalty area. As the ball dropped out of the sky, Nelson flapped and failed to make a connection and from close range, Yohann Lasimant was on hand to nod the ball home to delight the 898 visiting fans behind the goal.

For the second game in succession, Gillingham had been denied points with a goal beyond the 90 minute mark bringing their fitness into question, this being the unfortunate result of losing players to injury that are being replaced by players coming back from injury that are not completely match fit or others that just have not had enough game time. Akinfenwa is a case in point, he was a handful when he was on the pitch, but the attack became toothless once he had departed and it is a worry that he doesn't have the fitness to get beyond the hour mark.

For the neutral taking in a breath of fresh air on Boxing Day, this would have provided some very decent entertainment but for Gillingham fans this was yet another example of their infuriatingly consistent inconsistency.

Ebbsfleet United 2 Sutton United 0

Match 44/13/1071 - Saturday, 21st December 2013 - Conference South

Ebbsfleet United (1) 2 Bricknell 12, 62
Sutton United (0) 0
Att. 774

Entrance: £8
Programme: £3
Mileage: 62/4,884

Match Report

For the first time in this 2013-14 season the weather took a big bite out of the fixture list. My original destination was to be Tonbridge’s home game against Maidenhead, with Tunbridge Wells’ fixture at Deal as the back-up.
The overnight rain was torrential and, whilst there was to be a morning inspection at Longmead, there was no hope of the fixture going ahead.
I drew up a list of six fixtures with the hope that one of them would survive the downpour and number four on my list, Ebbsfleet’s clash with Sutton United came through.

This was my first visit to Stonebridge Road since the club came from the near-bankruptcy situation under the ownership of MyFC to the comparative wealth of the Kuwaiti-backed KEH Sports. Liam Daish, who departed Ebbsfleet after eight years of make do and mend, deserves sympathy that on his departure, the new manager, Steve Brown, was offered veritable riches and plundered the transfer market, and his old club Dover in particular, for talent that Daish could only dream of.

Stonebridge Road also has had a spruce up with the incoming investment. New roofs to the Liam Daish Stand (how ironic) and the stand behind the goal, brought welcome shelter from the incessant rain that lashed the ground on the back of a very stiff wind. One surprising status quo, considering that before the takeover a competition to find the worst toilets in football had won the club £100,000 to build a new facility, was that the sniper’s block that serves as the gents was still standing albeit with new stainless steel troughs and sinks. It is characterful; well that is what I tell myself.

What was personally important was that the investment that had been made in a new drainage system had paid dividends and it was because of this that this game was able to proceed.

Ebbsfleet and their visitor’s both occupied top five positions before the start of play and a well contested game was in prospect. Unfortunately the weather conditions prevailed and the game did not quite reach the heights expected.

Ebbsfleet were in search of a ninth straight win that would set a new club record and they got off to the best of starts when, after 12 minutes in which Sutton had made the early running, they took the lead through a flicked header by Billy Bricknell. A cross from the right was unconverted, but the ball was recycled by Anthony Cook whose cross, although slightly behind the striker, was turned into the net at the far post.

Cook was a player that I’ve heard quite a bit about in recent weeks, and he gave the type of curate egg of a performance that I’ve been described. His running with the ball was both exciting and frustrating as too often there wasn’t an end result. In the first half, he was sent clear but his shot cleared the bar, whilst a second half free kick crashed against the crossbar from 25 yards.

Before Ebbsfleet tied up the game just past the hour mark, Sutton were guilty of two glaring misses of Christmas blooper proportions. With a couple of minutes of the first half remaining, the visitors put together a move that cut through the Ebbsfleet defence and ended with Damian Scannell crossing the ball across the face of goal from where the unmarked Charlie Clough was guilty of shooting high and wide from less than six yards. Moments prior to the home side’s second goal, they were once again opened up by a fine Sutton move that saw Dale Binns cut the ball back to Dean Sinclair who then conspired to turn the ball wide of the right hand post from inches rather than yards.

Sutton paid dearly for their profligacy when a long ball out of defence deceived, perhaps with the aid of the wind, the central defender leaving Bricknell in the clear to coolly slide the ball under the onrushing Tom Lovelock. The goal drained away the challenge of Sutton and the home side were able to see out the final half-hour with only addition to the scoreline likely to be their own.

It is good to see that a grand old club like Ebbsfleet (Gravesend) are enjoying the good times, record breaking times, after several years struggling with non-competitive budgets in the Conference National. There is a very good chance that they will return to the top of the non-league pyramid at the end of this season and it will be interesting to see what sort of resources their Kuwaiti benefactors are able to contribute to avoid the desperate struggle with which Liam Daish had to contend.

Gillingham 2 Peterborough United 2

Match 43/13/1070 - Saturday, 14th December 2013 - League One

Gillingham (0) 2 Martin 50, McDonald 67
Peterborough United (1) 2 Assombalonga 10, 90+7
Att. 6,949

Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 45/4,822

Match Report

Returning to the daily trudge of life, work, household chores, etc., is the downside to any holiday, however, there is, of course, football and although Gillingham’s form has been found wanting whilst I was away, there was an eager anticipation of returning to Priestfield and the visit of Peterborough United was an attractive proposition.

One of the reflections I had whilst lying on a sunbed in Thailand, keeping abreast of England’s lame attempt to retain the Ashes in Australia on the iPad, was how life in terms of communication has changed. Back in 1987, we were on holiday in (bit of name-dropping here!) the Seychelles. With no internet or texting in those days and with television in the hotels only showing local stations there was little chance of finding out the result of a game such as Gillingham’s. In the middle of the week following a Saturday fixture, we were in the capital, Victoria, and I happened upon a shop that was selling English Sunday papers. As the papers were selling at about 10 times their cover price, I thought a sneaky look at the results page would suffice to find out how the boys back home had fared. As I came out of the shop, my wife said “how did they get on”. Err, I think they won, 1-0 I suspect, it actually says in the paper they won 10-0 but that has got to be a misprint. That was the famous victory against Chesterfield.

With Gillingham losing three out of four, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells both exiting their national cup competitions, whilst I was away, I mused that perhaps the ignorance of those days was better than the immediacy of today when you can know, wherever you are in the world, when Gillingham have a corner at the same time as those sat in their seats at Priestfield.

So, with form in mind, whilst I was looking forward to the game, I had very little expectancy of a positive result and even feared a bit of a hiding from a free-scoring Posh side that sat healthily in the play-off positions in the table. The first half lived up to those low expectations and despite starting the game well, with Jake Hessenthaler, on his home debut, setting up Bradley Dack with a chance that United’s keeper Robert Olejnik did well to palm to safety, Gillingham fell behind to a Britt Assombalonga goal after Stuart Nelson could only parry a shot from Michael Bostwick into the path of the free-scoring striker. The Congolese striker with 15 goals to his name prior to this fixture is living proof of the ability that is available in this division if you have a £1 million-plus to throw at one player alone. It should not be forgotten that another million pound striker, Tyrone Bennett, was only warming the Posh bench.

For much of the half, Gillingham were given a bit of a run-around and when they were forced into a double substitution due to injuries to Chris Whelpdale and Danny Hollands before the break, it wasn’t hard to be a little sceptical as to their second half chances.

But that wasn’t the way it turned out. The home side came out with plenty of spirit, witness Myles Weston tackling back as a case in point, and within five minutes of the restart they were back on level terms following a beautifully curled free kick into top right hand corner from the edge of the box by Joe Martin.

Assombalonga proved that he is only human when he blasted a good opportunity wide as the game ebbed and flowed in an entertaining manner. Twenty minutes remained when Gillingham deservedly went in front. A poor corner from Weston was returned to him and his long looping cross to the far post found Cody McDonald unmarked to place a header into the top corner.

With the game turned on its head, Peterborough threw caution to the wind and the proverbial kitchen sink at the opponents. A long stoppage, three minutes from time, ensued when referee Tim Robinson was, as the announcer pronounced, “relieved by the fourth official” and the subsequent eight minutes that were shown brought a collective groan from the Priestfield faithful.

Nelson saved at point blank range from Bennett as the game entered the time added on, but the game should have been ended as a contest moments later when McDonald sped past the last defender and one-on-one with the Olejnik, he lost out as his low shot was beaten away by the on-rushing goalkeeper.

With seven of the eight minutes having elapsed, Gillingham, and their fans, suffered severe heartbreak as a corner found its way through a packed penalty area to Assombalonga who back-heeled it across the line from close range. Whilst it was a devastating blow, the fair minded will draw the conclusion that Peterborough deserved their point and the vast majority would have taken a draw from the outset.

So, great though holidays are, it was good to be back in the cut and thrust of a damn good contest and with Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells also winning, I almost believe I’m suddenly a lucky charm!

Cambodia and Thailand

Like most people, I like to show off my holiday snaps and here are a few of mine . . .

The Olympic Stadium in Phnom Penh, where the back of the main stand is a little more impressive than the front!

The Lambert Stadium, Phnom Penh, home to the National Defense Ministry. There was a game in progress, but was unable to find anybody with sufficient English to tell me who the teams involved actually were. In fact they were far more interested with a Kick Boxing session that was going on behind the stand.

And finally, the Surakul Stadium in Phuket, Thailand, home to FC Phuket.

Who needs pictures of sun-kissed beaches!

England 0 Germany 1

Match 42/13/1069 - Tuesday, 19th November 2013 - International

England (0) 0
Germany (1) 1 Merteseker
Att. 85,950

Entrance: £40
Programme: £6
Mileage: 100/4,777

Three games in quick succession and whilst there was a real high at Bramall Lane, the next two brought lows, and this one brought a particular trough.

I can live with the fact that, frankly, England are not very good. As football supporters, whether it be your club side or the national side, you have to learn to treat the impostors of victory and defeat the same and move on to the next celebration or disappointment. But Wembley has a side to it that is becoming, sorry has become, unpalatable, the behaviour of the people around you.

I hoped that an incident with a thug at the Wales game two years ago was just a one-off, wrong place, wrong time, etc., but another incident leaves me wondering whether these situations are so rife at Wembley they are almost unavoidable.

The FA assure us that these are rare occurrences, sadly we know otherwise.

The match itself no longer had any relevance, England failed to register a shot on goal and Per Merteseker headed home the winner, all that I wanted was to get away from a stadium that once held such magic.

Brackley Town 1 Gillingham 0

Match 41/13/1068 - Monday, 18th November 2013 - FA Cup 1R Replay

Brackley Town (1) 1 Walker 21
Gillingham (0) 0
Att. 1,772

Entrance: £6 Senior
Programme: £2
Mileage: 260/4,677
New Ground: 257

Match Report

Following in the footsteps of Maidstone United, Welling United, Burscough and Dover, Brackley Town can now be added to the list of non-league clubs that have heaped embarrassment on Gillingham Football Club.

If Gillingham had been playing a League 2 club and gone out in the circumstances of this match, then most of the disconsolate 200 or so visiting fans leaving St James Park could justifiably claim that "we were unlucky". Four times the ball struck the woodwork and Bradley Dack had a perfectly good goal chalked off, but the opposition were part-timers and luck should not have to play a part and let's face it, Brackley more than deserved their rub of the green for their performance at Priestfield.

With his predecessor, Martin Allen, looking down from the BT Sports commentary box, Peter Taylor, his hand forced somewhat by injury and suspension, chose a team that had a very different look to the one that had performed so admirably at Sheffield United on Saturday. Chris Whelpdale and Cody McDonald were rested and Adebayo Akinfenwa and Antonio German were given rare starts to lead the attack. Certainly, I was not in the minority in wishing that the manager had chosen to go strong from the outset and withdraw players if and when the game was won. I can understand the desire to safeguard McDonald, with the injury to Danny Kedwell perhaps being longer than just this game, but the selection smacked of paying lip-service to the FA Cup and I think that this does a disservice to both the fans and the club itself.

Ultimately, a shot from 25 yards that took a deflection from one of the outstanding performers of the initial tie, Glenn Walker, was enough to seal a place in the second round for the Calor Gas Southern Premier League side. A poor clearance from Leon Legge, led to Charlie Lee being dispossessed in midfield and the winger crashed home for a 21st minute lead.

From that point it was a case of what might have been for the visitors. When Myles Weston was fed the ball, his pace was too hot for the Brackley back line to handle, but, almost without exception the cross was found wanting and when the ball was delivered there was nobody on the end to finish.

Back in 2005, the FA Cup tie at Burscough had that feel about it, that Gillingham were an accident about to happen. A club on the descent, a manager under pressure, a filthy day weather-wise producing a heavy pitch, all the ingredients for a shock. This game never had that same sense of foreboding, despite the early lead for the non-leaguers, until the final few minutes when the desire appeared to evaporate, I felt that somehow, whether it be a lucky break or all the way to penalties, Gillingham were going to escape with some dignity intact. It just didn't happen.

Perhaps I should have expected as much when four minutes from the break, Dack got on the end of a Akinfenwa header to the far post, only to see his effort erroneously chalked off for offside.

Brackley's young goalkeeper, Alastair Worby, who prior to the game had been seen as the possible weak link, must have touched wood for luck at the second half as he watched the ball cannon off the woodwork on four occasions, but he earned his good fortune with a series of saves.

There were a couple of intervening moments when the home side could have put the Gillingham fans out of their misery when Steve Diggin brought a save from Stuart Nelson and Walker pulled a couple of shots wide of the post.

I doubt there were many of the Gillingham fans around at the finish to watch the obligatory pitch invasion; they were left to troop back to their cars, shaking their heads as to how and why their club's Wembley ambitions had been ended for another year.

Sheffield United 1 Gillingham 2

Match 40/13/1067 - Saturday, 16th November 2013 - League One

Sheffield United (1) 1 Porter 16
Gillingham (1) 2 Kedwell 8, McDonald 47
Att. 16,560

Entrance: £12.50 Senior
Programme: £3
Mileage: 460/4,437

Match Report

Desire has been a forgotten watchword at Priestfield Stadium in recent weeks. As I walked away from Bramall Lane, high on the excitement of a memorable victory at one of this Division’s major stadiums, I quickly reflected that whether this was due to the installation of Peter Taylor as a permanent manager or not, the desire that swept Gillingham to last season’s League Two championship had returned.

It took desire for Danny Kedwell to close down the advancing Sheffield United goalkeeper, George Long as he attempted to clear a back pass that rebounded off the Gillingham striker and into the empty net leaving the goalscorer to hobble away from the celebrations. It also took desire, early in the second half, for Cody McDonald to put his head in where it hurts as the ball came back from the crossbar to re-establish the visitors lead. And in a frantic last quarter hour, plus five minutes added time, it took desire as Adam Barrett, in particular, got his head to every cross that was thrown into the box as the Blades sought to salvage something from the afternoon.

From the derision of successive home games the 600-odd Gillingham fans were never wavering in their desire to support their club as their voices rose above the 16,000 fans of this once mighty club.

Two new faces were quickly added to the squad on Taylor’s appointment and both made significant contributions on their debuts. Craig Fagan, known to Taylor from his days as Hull City manager, was a constant threat to the Sheffield United backline and was fully worthy of the standing ovation given by the Gillingham fans on his substitution after 78 minutes. The 19-year-old full back, Elliott Hewitt, drafted in on loan from Ipswich Town, was the man clearing from the line when a header from Neill Collins after 15 minutes was goalbound at the right hand post.

Following Kedwell’s 8th minute opener, Gillingham suffered three successive blows that threatened to derail the afternoon’s endeavours. Steven Gregory, who had an effective first quarter-hour sweeping in front of the back four, was hurt in a challenge, necessitating his substitution by Bradley Dack, before the home side found the net with a Chris Porter header at the near post after a period of sustained pressure. Kedwell was immediately substituted by McDonald having failed to shake off the knock sustained in the scoring of his ninth goal of the season.

The opening of the second half could not have been better as Gillingham kicked in the direction of their own support. After a couple of minutes, Fagan crossed to the edge of the area from where John Mousinho looped a header onto the crossbar, in amongst the feet attempting to make a clearance from the rebound, McDonald dived, to head into the net and restore their lead.

The frustrated Bramall Lane support urged their team forward with the age-old chant of “Attack, Attack”, but a series of woeful finishes and a Gillingham defence superbly marshalled by their skipper, Barrett, repelled their better efforts as Stuart Nelson was not really asked to make a meaningful save.

The added time, for which we were so grateful last Saturday, seemed like an eternity as the home fans voiced their displeasure when Nelson sought recovery time from injury following an almighty scramble in front of their goal following a free kick thrown into the box.

If Gillingham can show the same desire at Brackley in Monday’s FA Cup replay, a Second Round visit to Macclesfield surely awaits, despite the probable absence of their talisman Kedwell and the ineligibility of Fagan and Hewitt. Peter Taylor’s new contract is through to the end of the season, and whilst Sheffield United looked every inch a team that that is in their rightful position in the relegation spots of the division, this was a start to his permanent tenure that was as much as our hearts could have desired.