Gillingham (1) 3 King 2, Barcham 75,88
Macclesfield Town (0) 1 Evans 79 (pen)
Att. 4,620
Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 45/5,459
Match Report
In these days of the celebrity footballer where making the A list is almost as important as making the first team, we are continually told that football is now part of the entertainment business. On Tuesday night walking away from the 4-4 thriller, I took in the conversation of a group of people that (I’m assuming) took up the offer of the free tickets made available by the “Manager’s Pledge”.This group were more than happy with their evening’s entertainment, “How lucky was that, eight goals, great game”, blah-de-blah. Personally I was slightly in despair, how could we defend so awfully, how do we score four times and not win, blah-de-blah.
Today was almost parallel opposites, for the most part this was a really poor game, Gillingham were far from great, but the 3-1 win sends the vast majority home happy. Conclusion: Unless you are a truly neutral (and how many of those do you get at League Two games?) football is not part of the entertainment business, it is all about winning.
Rather surprisingly given the defensive nightmare against Aldershot, Mark Stimson made only the obvious change in bringing back fit-again Simon King in central defence and retained the services of Mark McCammon upfront in place of the injured Gary Mulligan. Bit of head shaking as to why John Nutter was not recalled in place of Rene Steer, but under a lot less pressure, Steer looked marginally better than on Tuesday, marginally being the operative word.
King met a second minute Nicky Southall corner to plant a firm header into the Macclesfield net and from here we anticipated a goalfest and unbridled entertainment. Unfortunately the goal did nothing other than flatten the game completely and a first half of tedium ensued. There was a couple of moments when the game rose above this very low ebb, but neither goalkeeper was severely tested.
The second half started at a slightly better tempo, Southall had a shot saved at the second attempt and a solo break from defence by Mark Bentley ended with a shot just edging wide. Eventually, with 15 minutes to go, Gillingham got a second goal. McCammon, on his knees and with his backside to goal, somehow managed to get the ball back to Andy Barcham who drove home.
So two goals to the good and coasting, it was time to doze off again. This I must have done, because I completely missed the incident that led to Macclesfield being awarded a penalty for handball against Barcham. Evans converted and the palpitations brought on by Tuesday returned. Thankfully, out of the depths of mediocrity, came a match winning goal of pure quality. Barcham cut in from the left and curled a peach of a shot into the far corner to send the home fans on their way happy with the outcome.
I would doubt there were many neutrals to entertain this afternoon, so the vast majority were going home satisfied, because as Brucie once said, Points mean Prizes, and ultimately the prize is entertainment enough.
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