Folkestone Invicta 0 Gillingham 3

Match 01/09/753 - Saturday, 11th July 2009 - Pre-Season Friendly

Folkestone Invicta (0) 0
Gillingham (1) 3 Rooney 26, McCammon 46, Palmer 70
Att. 485

Entrance: £8
Programme: £1.50
Mileage: 82/82

Match Report

Gillingham gently eased themselves into pre-season action with a comfortable three goal win against Ryman League Folkestone Invicta at the Buzzlines Stadium. Mark Stimson played a different side in each half with the exception of ex-Yeovil triallist Aaron Brown (don’t panic it’s not him!) playing the full 90 minutes in central defence. An little niggle for Simon King allowing Brown the full term.

The first half saw new signing Kevin Maher captaining the side and featuring another triallist Sam Long, who comes from the Barry Fuller school of raiding full backs spending a lot more time in the opposition half than his own. The front line was occupied by reserve team youngsters Andy Pugh and Luke Rooney and it was the latter that opened the scoring on 26 minutes with a good strike from outside the box following a great cross field pass from Curtis Weston, who patrolled and controlled the midfield throughout the half.

Gillingham’s defence did have a couple of shaky moments before they took the lead when twice, straight passes through the centre of the defence saw Invicta strikers with shooting opportunities which they spurned.

When fed the ball, Andy Barcham had too much pace and too many tricks for the non-leaguers defence, but several crosses into the box failed to find the Gills strikers. It was in midfield where Gills impressed with Weston being complemented by the lively Stuart Lewis with Maher playing the holding role.

The second half side saw the introduction of new signing Chris Palmer, who had a very good first appearance, triallist Rashid Yussuff (pictured), who was very impressive and well worth another look. Defensive triallist Chris McCready paired with Brown were barely stretched as Folkestone ran out of steam and Simon Royce was under much greater threat from a flock of seagulls than any opposition attack.

A minute into the second half Yusseff sent Palmer clear down the left and he crossed for Mark McCammon to tap in from close range and on 70 minutes Yusseff supplied the pass of the match for Palmer to round the keeper and slot home a third.

As with the first half it was the midfield that shone, in addition to the excellent Yusseff there was a solid return to fitness from Adam Miller, young Jack Payne looked at home as the holding midfielder with Dennis Oli raiding the right hand side. Dennis is going to need a superb season if he is going to carry off those pink boots though!

A good opener for Gills at the old, but full of character, Cheriton Road stadium. Hopefully the 485 people present offers Folkestone some respite from their financial difficulties because it would be very sad to see this grand old Kent club disappear from the footballing landscape.