Cheltenham Town (1) 1 Gillespie 24
Gillingham (0) 0
Att. 4,008
Entrance: £18
Programme: £2.50
Mileage 324/637
Match Report Match Video
Just about everything that could go wrong on opening day went wrong on the pitch at Whaddon Road.
The floods that had engulfed Cheltenham in July had given way to a hot day (when is opening day anything other than hot) and with heavy holiday traffic the M25 was a stop-start journey that left us sweating both physically and metaphorically as the time started to slip away. Finally free of the biggest car park in the world, reasonable time was made and we paid at the gate with time to spare.Looking out to the Malvern Hills beyond, Whaddon Road could be a picturesque setting, unfortunately the older stands that had seen them through their non-league days have been replaced by Meccano outfits that have no character whatsoever. All very neat and tidy, but totally soulless.
A word for Cheltenham’s match day programme, voted best in League One last term and will certainly be a contender again and good value at £2.50.
There will be plenty of recriminations aimed at the referee and linesman, but Gillingham must look at themselves for this defeat. They were frankly awful and when, back in the car, we come to the conclusion that Mulligan was our man of the match for 30 minutes of effort as substitute, it says much about the rest. The game was settled by a goal that clearly looked offside and following two penalty appeals for handball that went unanswered, Gillingham went down to 9 men with Cox and Lomas seeing red. Cheltenham also lost a man to another laughable decision that led us to believe the referee Melin had completely lost the plot.
So for 588 Gillingham fans that had made the journey down to Gloucestershire they watched that pre-season optimism drain away in 90 very drab minutes.
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