Gillingham (1) 1 Jackson 36 (pen)
Norwich City (0) 1 Russell 90
Att. 7,550
Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 45/3,035
Match Report
1,500 Norwich City supporters stationed behind the Town End goal being attacked by their favourites celebrated wildly as they snatched a 94th minute equaliser from Darel Russell whilst the rest of Priestfield looked on in stunned silence. As the final whistle sounded the feeling was one of gutted, arguments could be made that five minutes of added time was excessive (I had only three on my stopwatch) but the fair-minded (or neutral observers) would say that Norwich deserved a point.The East Anglians had played for the best part of an hour with ten men following the awarding of a penalty and the sending off of goalkeeper Fraser Forster. Curtis Weston, sent through on goal by a deft flick from Simeon Jackson, was upended by the onrushing keeper. Was it a dive? I couldn’t tell from my Gordon Road seat and when referee Paul Taylor headed in the direction of the penalty box to brandish a card, I half expected a yellow for Weston as much as I hoped for a penalty. As it was a red was shown and Forster took the walk. Taylor is not a particularly respected referee (certainly not popular) and some of his decisions are completely mystifying, so why should we think that he got this one right?
Jackson kept his nerve through the long delay to put Gillingham one-up, much against the run of play. Norwich had opened brightly with Wes Hoolihan a shining star. An excellent Simon Royce save denied the tricky midfielder after a quarter of an hour and his partnership with right back Jon Otsemobor was giving the home side all sorts of problems.
Mr Taylor’s bizarre interventions brought yellow cards for Hoolihan and Gills skipper Barry Fuller following a minor spat in which the Norwich player auditioned for a part in Platoon, shame because he is so much better than that.
Just prior to half time Otsemobor was forced to leave the field following a knock and with it the Hoolihan threat did slightly diminish. The half ended with Gillingham starting to dominate territorially for the first time aided by the man advantage.
For the first 30 minutes of the second half, Gillingham held the upper hand, chances were made, chances were wasted. Gowling, Palmer and sub Nutter all saw efforts go high or wide before Jackson embarked on a one man crusade to seal the game. Four good, almost great, chances in the space of five minutes fell to the Gills ace marksman, but it was not to be. Two went wide, one went high and the other was smothered by the sub keeper, Declan Rudd. Within a couple minutes Jackson pulled up clutching a hamstring and his afternoon ended.
Norwich, with nothing to lose, started to gamble in the last 15 minutes. As they took the game on, sadly Gillingham didn’t help their cause by constantly giving the ball away. The pressure built and built until the 90th minute and beyond was reached. A superb block from a Hoolihan shot by John Nutter led to a corner and keeper Rudd rushed forward to join in the fray. Josh Gowling and Mark Bentley had manfully countered the threat of Grant Holt bruise for bruise all afternoon but with seconds remaining from the resultant corner, Holt headed onto the bar and Russell grabbed the equaliser from the rebound. Cue mad yellow-clad celebration.
I will use a phrase that I’ve used before in these columns, glass half-full or half empty? On this occasion, half empty I’m afraid, although I will admit I would have taken a draw at the start, to lose the three points at such a late stage leaves an empty feeling.
Credit to Norwich though, they’ve gone the distance with 10 men and while they had 11, I thought they were the best team we’ve seen at Priestfield so far this season and in Wes Hoolihan they have a starlet that even opposing fans can admire.
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