Gillingham 1 Heart of Midlothian 2

Match 05/10/821 - Thursday, 29th July 2010 - Pre-Season Friendly

Gillingham (0) 1 Rooney 49 (pen)
Heart of Midlothian (0) 2 Novikovas 52, Bouzid 84
Att. 2,359

Entrance: £12.50
Programme: £2
Mileage: 45/231

Match Report

Gillingham acquited themselves well in their marquee friendly against Scottish Premier League Hearts. I cannot remember Gillingham having Scottish opponents before, although when the visitors team sheet was read out they didn't exactly sound celtic. I might be wrong, but I guess Gillingham managed to piggy-back this fixture by virtue of Hearts providing the opposition for Millwall in Neil Harris' testimonial on Saturday.

The home side had the best of the first half, Barcham stretched the Hearts defence on several occasions and might well have earned a penalty when brought down and Stefan Payne had a one-on-one opportunity from which he might have done better. The closest Gillingham got to gaining a first half lead came when Hearts' Darren Barr was forced to clear off his line following a deflection by one of his own players.

The second half started briskly and Payne earned a penalty when brought down by Bouzid. Luke Rooney grabbed the ball and nobody was going to stop him from taking the penalty that he duly converted.

Unfortunately the lead failed to last three minutes. A fine through ball cut open the Gillingham defence and Arvydas Novikovas cooly finished.

With 25 minutes remaining the home fans were treated to their first look at new signing Adebayo Akinfenwa, and a big boy he certainly is. Presently weighing in at a touch over 17 stone, he has to be the fattest outfield player I've ever seen. Not according to Hess though, it is muscle.

His size supplied the hilarious moment of the night, outside of a congested penalty area the ball ran loose to Rooney who shot for goal, only to see it rebound off Akinfenwa's backside, let's face it, it was impossible for Rooney to miss!

Back to the game and Gillingham were denied a draw against their illustrious opponents when Ismael Bouzid powered an unchallenged header past substitute goalkeeper Lance Cronin with just six minutes remaining to the delight of a sizeable Scottish following in the Gordon Road Stand.

A worthwhile run out that gives Andy Hessenthaler plenty of options leading up to the League opener and we will never forget our first sighting of Adebayo!