Gillingham 0 Northampton Town 1

Match 47/07/664 - Saturday, 19th January 2008 - League One

Gillingham (0) 0
Northampton Town (1) 1 Jones 3
Att. 5,570

Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 45/3,907

Gillingham have created a new jinx. After months of waiting for an away win, two come along in the space of little more than a month and this is followed by a disappointing home defeat to teams from the lower reaches of the Division. The victory at Crewe was undone with a home defeat to then bottom-of-the-table Port Vale and a away defeat at Bournemouth, who had taken over Vale’s place at the foot.

Last Saturday saw an impressive victory at Huddersfield, that by all accounts was thoroughly deserved, but today they failed to overturn a Northampton side in poor form.

It might have been guessed that fate was going to play its part. A Radio Northamptonshire commentator spelt out the Cobblers form and problems on Radio Kent prior to the game. No clean sheet in 17 games, two wins in 14, top scorer Andy Kirk had departed during the week, major injury problems, there can be only one winner of this game and they won’t come from Northants he lamented. The type of game Gillingham conspire to lose I thought.

Three minutes in, a doubtful free kick conceded and Danny Jones curled it beautifully into the top right hand corner, leaving Royce motionless. For the next 87 minutes Gillingham had a lot of pressure, and the ball failed to drop invitingly but Northampton’s keeper was not forced to make a meaningful save during the entire game. Corner after corner, cross after cross fell straight into his hands as the home side struggled to make an impression on the game. What the radio man had got it right was upfront as Northampton spurned four chances to put the game to bed, catching Gillingham on the break and carving them open with disturbing ease.

I guess we are going to have to put up with the inconsistency for the rest of the season as this team evolves. Thurgood, Oli, Giffiths, Nutter and Miller’s loans have all been made permanent. Stone, Bryant and Hamilton have all gone out on loan and there are bids in for three players, Fleetwood from Forest Green, Rushden’s Simeon Jackson and possibly, Jon Ashton from Grays. There was plenty of huff and puff this afternoon but with very little quality and once again raised expectations are dashed.