Gillingham 2 Huddersfield Town 0

Match 50/09/802 - Thursday, 6th March 2010 - League One

Gillingham (1) 2 Jackson 6, 46
Huddersfield Town (0) 0
Att. 5,388

Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 45/5,562

Match Report

For television viewers of a certain vintage there used to be a very watchable programme entitled “Tales of the Unexpected”, this afternoon at Priestfield we watched our own Tale of the Unexpected.

I certainly wasn’t risking a brass nickel of my mortgage on Gillingham earning even a point against a high-flying Huddersfield Town. There may have been reason to speculate following the Yorkshire side’s battering at Southampton in midweek and their away record was only average, but still the odds against were too great for my pennies.

Also unexpected was the nature of the visitors’ performance. My expectation was one of a footballing side that would have too much in attack for Gillingham to withstand. After all, their goal tally of 69 is greater than both Leeds and Charlton. What we actually got was a team of cloggers that ended the game a man light and could easily have been further depleted.

On a surprisingly cold March afternoon, Gillingham started the game at a hot pace and there was early controversy as Terriers’ keeper Alex Smithies brought down Simeon Jackson some 35 yards from his goal, fortunately for the goalkeeper the referee deemed a yellow an adequate punishment. What Smithies was doing so far from home only he would know.

Rene Howe had two opportunities to open the scoring and should certainly have done better with the second attempt as he shot weakly straight at Smithies when through on goal. But the hosts were not to be denied as a scorching Jackson effort from 30 yards into the bottom right corner put them a goal to the good after seven minutes.

Huddersfield’s leading scorer Jordan Rhodes was fortunate to escape with a yellow card when he appeared to strike Gillingham keeper Alan Julian in the throat as they contested a high through ball.

Tempers boiled over five minutes later following a horrendous challenge by Nathan Eccleston on Stuart Lewis. The referee instantly brandished a red card as players squared up to one another in search of retribution. Lewis eventually climbed to his feet and played on, but it could so easily have been major injury to the full back.

Despite their opponents being down to 10 men, Gillingham were relieved to see a Garry Richards deflection go millimetres wide and were also grateful when Rhodes got in the way of a Lee Novak shot.

Just 20 seconds of the second half had elapsed when Rene Howe nodded on Darren Dennehy’s clearance and Jackson sped into the area to calmly slot home. It was a really good finish, my eye line was good the see the ball bobbling about on a poor surface as he steadied to make his shot.

Rene Howe, whose link play was good, unfortunately didn’t have the best of afternoons in front of goal as another couple of chances were wasted before being substituted in the 73rd minute by Dennis Oli.

Jackson had several good chances to secure his hat trick including an effort that produced a double save from Smithies. Meanwhile, Julian was called upon to make a good save from Theo Robinson and Gary Roberts hit a post, but Gillingham richly deserved their unexpected victory.