Gillingham 1 Shrewsbury Town 0

Match 67/08/751 - Saturday, 23rd May 2009 - League Two Final

Gillingham (0) 1 Jackson 90
Shrewsbury Town (0) 0
Att. 53,706

Entrance: £56
Programme: £5
Mileage: 100/8,843

Match Report

At the end of the line of players who had each taken their turn to receive their medals and lift the Cup to the fully deserved adulation of the 32,000 Gillingham supporters, Mark Stimson lifted the trophy and duly passed in on to his chairman and people actually cheered. It was almost a cathartic moment when in the eyes of their fiercest critics perhaps they had reached redemption. For the fair-minded among the throng and the people that have witnessed the weekly politics show that became Gillingham Football Club 2008-09, Stimson, at least, did not need any absolution and perhaps Paul Scally might even be given a ha’pence of credit for the achievement.

Eighteen months ago, our club reached its lowest ebb when a dreadful performance resulted in an FA exit at Barnet. The manner in which they departed the competition left a bad taste in the mouth, the club stank. Stimson was in charge that day, had recently started his reconstruction with a clutch of non league players and despite the shortness of time since his appointment he took the wrath of the fans squarely on the chin. As the situation failed to improve and Gills slipped to relegation, from the mouths of the loudest, no matter what had gone before, two men alone stood guilty of taking Gillingham into the basement of the Football League, Stimson and Scally.

As the men hugged before Stimson turned to bring the trophy back to the field of play, I would loved to have heard the brief conversation between the two. If the chairman had said, “well done Mark, now go and give them the finger,” I would not have blamed him. Thankfully, Stimson recognises that there is more to Gillingham’s support than the mouthy minority.

The game might have been settled in the last minute, Shrewsbury might have a bone of contention that the corner from which Simeon Jackson headed the winner should not have been awarded, but from 1 to 11, Gillingham were better than their opponents for virtually every minute of the contest. Simon King produced an immense performance alongside Garry Richards to reduce Grant Holt to a bit part. In the centre of the field, Curtis Weston and Josh Wright combined to give Gillingham a huge percentage of possession. That the territorial advantage was not turned into goals was mainly down to the brilliant keeping of Luke Daniels and the doughty defending of Graham Coughlan.

Once the pyrotechnics and Football League bigwigs had left the stage to the two teams, it was Shrewsbury who settled into their stride first and the larger percentage of the crowd breathed a sigh of relief when skipper Barry Fuller was forced to clear under pressure. Once this scare had been passed, Gillingham took complete control of the first half. Dennis Oli started to make an impression with his surging runs and John Nutter encouraged as he got forward on the opposite flank forcing Daniels into a good save on the half hour.

Daniels made an even better save on the stroke of half time pushing away a Josh Wright shot that came through a crowd of bodies. It had been Gillingham’s half by a country mile but they had no scoreline to reflect the dominance.

Although Shrewsbury carried a greater threat in the second half it was still the Gills that made most of the running although significantly Simeon Jackson was being successfully shackled by the powerful Coughlan. Andy Barcham had a shot saved at the near post by Daniels before the Shrews had their best two moments of the game and Kent held their breath. Ben Davies was through on goal before Barcham superbly got back to get a toe end on the ball to clear and Kevin McIntyre steered a free header well wide of the post when it seemed easier to score.

Were the Gills were beginning to flag in the hot sunshine? It was time to reassert their authority on the game and so they did, but a winner refused to come for all their dominance. The clock was ticking down and the 53,000 odd attendance were readying themselves for extra time and a dreaded penalty shoot out.

Andy Barcham skipped inside a tackle and took a return pass from Curtis Weston to the bye-line from which his cross was blocked for a corner, let’s not dwell on the fact that it rebounded off Barchy! Josh Wright sent in the corner, Simeon Jackson came back from his original starting position a yard, rose and headed the ball towards goal, on the line Neil Ashton’s arm could only help the ball into the roof of the net with Luke Daniels clawing the ball back from a yard over the line. The goal brought the explosion of noise from the thousands of Gills fans as Wembley rejoiced to Simeon Jackson’s dance of celebration. The lad had no joy for 89 minutes against Coughlan, but with one chance, one header, he had catapulted Gillingham back to League One at the first time of asking. He can be totally anonymous for large periods of games, but he is a goalscorer and a match winner.

Three minutes extra on the clock enabled Shrewsbury to throw one last effort at Gillingham and the man that has left Gillingham with some bad memories in regular season, Grant Holt, had one last header that was steered wide before Clive Oliver brought proceedings to a rapturous end.

The scenes of jubilation with the lifting of the cup, the spraying of the champagne, the lap of honour and even the feeling of sympathy for the Shrewsbury side laid out, desolate, on the pitch (don’t forget we’ve been there) were what has taken us through the past nine months and through the bad times, no more so than the 7-0 hammering at the ProStar in September.

But the champagne moment that I personally will take with me was the exchange between Stimson and Scally, a moment of vindication for both men.