Gillingham (1) 2 Weston 3, Southall 51
Shrewsbury Town (0) 2 Holt 79 (pen), 90
Att. 6,023
Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 45/6,635
Match Report
I thought my days of mood being altered by the result of a football match were long since gone, but leaving Priestfield yesterday, I was, to use the modern vernacular, gutted. Whether I had built this match in my own mind to be bigger than it actually was, time will tell, but I had seen it as the most important of the season so far, the opportunity to go a long way towards eliminating one of the contenders for the play-off positions and, of course, there was the little matter of revenge. Two goals up going into the last quarter-hour, Gillingham were heading into the automatic places and then they blew it, or did they? Saturday night, a few beers and some live music did its best to lift the mood and in the cold light of reflection and through the slight haze of a hangover, came the realisation that despite having had the lead, this was a game which could so easily have been lost had we not had a goalkeeper performing at the top of his game.
Gillingham could not have wished for a better start, a loose clearance fell to Curtis Weston who drove into the top corner from 25 yards to the delight of the Rainham End, honouring Mark Stimson’s request for more noise.
The fans continued in good voice for much of the first half, hugely encouraged by the attacking endeavours of the home side, which produced further chances for Mark McCammon and Nicky Southall, before on the stroke of half time, Simon Royce was called upon to make the first of his blinding saves from a Ben Davies free kick.
Quick into their stride in the second half, Gillingham doubled their advantage on 51 minutes when Simeon Jackson robbed the dithering Kelvin Langmead and back heeled into the path of Southall, who finished well. As Shrews keeper Luke Daniels was further pressed into action by McCammon, hopes were rising that the revenge could indeed be quite emphatic. But a further jolt of reality came from McCammon’s old mucker, Moses Ashikodi, who hit the bar when it was easier to score and Royce once again came off best in his contest with Ben Davies. But the writing was being firmly painted on the wall.
Shrewsbury’s way back into the game came with the aid of controversial penalty award. Barry Fuller was adjudged to have illegally shouldered Ashikodi as he ran through on goal and from the resultant twice-taken penalty, Grant Holt kept his nerve to half the deficit.
Tension gripped as Shrewsbury turned the screw and as the clock ticked into the final minute of normal time, Holt, the Division’s striker of true quality, got his head on the end of a right wing cross from the pacy substitute Chris Humphrey. The disappointment was palpable, but this could so easily have turned to despair as Holt was thwarted by the superb Royce in the final act of the afternoon.
Two points lost, one won, in football it is an age-old question. Time may well have changed the answer to that question on this occasion, at 5 o’clock the glass was most definitely half empty, this morning it was half full and I’m hopeful that it wasn’t just the beer from the glass that is doing the talking.
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