Gillingham 1 Southend United 1

Match 41/07/658 - Wednesday, 26th December 2007 - League One

Gillingham (0) 1 Miller 89
Southend United (0) 1 P. Clarke 54
Att. 8,268

Entrance: Season ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 45/3,604

Match Report

Gillingham got a fair old roasting but somehow managed to avoid a Christmas stuffing in this Boxing Day encounter and in keeping with the festive season were gifted a fluke 89th minute goal when Adam Miller saw his cross deceive everybody to nestle into the bottom corner.

To say that Gillingham were second best implies there was two runners, in truth for much of this match there was only one team in it and if Southend had capitalised on half of their chances they would have been home and hosed by half time. But if chances are not taken then the dominant side is open to the type of unfortunate finish that befell Southend this time and has certainly happened to Gillingham in the past.

Southend are a decent side, sitting on the edge of a play-off spot, looking perfectly capable of breaking into the top six. Tommy Black showed exactly what we are missing having failed to secure his signature after a successful loan spell last term. Craig Armstrong is not exactly having the best spell of his career and Black had him tied in knots and chasing shadows for much of his time on the pitch.

Gillingham lacked any invention in midfield, changed plans midway through the first half to add some width, but Plan B looked as largely ineffective as Plan A. Despite shipping a fair few chances, King and his stand-in partner Bentley coped manfully with the intimidating challenge of Leon Clarke and Charlie McDonald and when they managed to get a shot on target England’s Number One, Simon Royce was equal to the task. If I haven’t mentioned it before, the voting for the Player of the Year should be cancelled and the trophy given to Royce immediately.

After finally going in front, Southend strangely gave up their initiative and embarked on a time-wasting mission that wound up everybody and eventually was their undoing with the final freak finish. In the time added on Stuart Thurgood committed the type of foul that has to be eradicated from the game and deservedly saw red.

Prior to the Christmas holiday, Mr Scally pushed through his restructuring plans at a EGM and the ownership of Priestfield Stadium will pass to the chairman’s Priestfield Developments in the near future. History will now record whether this was the club’s salvation or its demise.