Hereford United (0) 0
Gillingham (0) 0
Att. 2,915
Entrance: £13
Programme: £2.50
Mileage: 387/807
New Ground: 236
Match Report
It’s still there. No matter how hard they wrestled, Gilllingham failed once more to rid themselves of that damned monkey on their backs.In a game almost entirely dominated by the visitors the elusive away win was thwarted by a combination of good goalkeeping in the shape of Adam Bartlett, the robust defending of skipper Janos Kovacs and finishing that was laced with misfortune.
Matt Lawrence, signed from Crystal Palace was drafted in at right back, Tony Sinclair moved alongside Josh Gowling in the centre of the defence with Mark Bentley moving into midfield.
The vast majority of the visiting support would have left Edgar Street wondering how that 16 month wait for an away victory had not been ended.
As the rain fell, a minute’s applause was observed following the death of Adam Stansfield, the Exeter City player who died a couple of days earlier, he was an ex-Hereford United player.
In the first 10 minutes Chris Palmer was twice denied by saves from Bartlett before Adebayo Akinfenwa put a header over the bar. Gillingham continued to dominate the half and although Alan Julian was forced into a couple of routine saves it was the visitors that came closest when a free kick straight from the training ground almost bore fruit. Danny Spiller and John Nutter shifted the position of the ball and Palmer struck a well hit shot that rebounded off a post.
Just before half time tempers became a touch roused when Kovacs, who is no small man, brought down Akinfenwa. Kovacs was booked for the foul and the feud continued into the tunnel at the half time whistle. If those two had really squared up it would have made a good undercard bout at the next David Haye fight.
Hereford’s own version of “The Tank”, Matheiu Manset shot into the side netting early in the second half as the home side restarted the brighter. Gillingham settled back into the game and chances followed with a couple of corners producing efforts on goal.
Hereford posed the visitors a few more problems during the second period than they had in the first, with one-time Gillingham target Stuart Fleetwood looking dangerous but overall he was well marshalled by the central defensive pairing.
Chris Palmer left the field having put in a good shift before being replaced by Stefan Payne with 10 minutes to play. Gillingham twice went close in those remaining minutes. Gowling headed a Spiller corner wide before the boy called Daniel brought the save of the match from Bartlett. His shot arrowed towards the top corner before the keeper touched it away.
So the long wait goes on but if Gillingham continue to perform in this vein on their travels that change in fortune cannot be too far away.
This was a first visit to Edgar Street where character should not be confused with dereliction. In these columns I’ve championed the quirkiness of the old in comparison to the legoland modern day stadia. But the facilities and the sightlines were so poor that, even for me, nostalgia has to take a back seat.
After four hours in a car it felt good to have the opportunity to stand on a terrace and we took this in preference to a seat. But we instantly regretted not paying the extra £2 as it was difficult to find a viewing position that was not impaired by huge concrete pillars that could have held the QE2 above water. The only option was to stand in front of them and get wet from the sometimes heavy rain that fell throughout the first half.
For those of you that can remember those awful toilets before the Rainham End was rebuilt, they were the deluxe version in comparison to those at Edgar Street. The one quirk that I did appreciate was the huge floodlight pylons that could have housed 50 bulbs per unit but instead were home to just nine!
No doubt the next away trip at Morecambe’s new Globe Arena will fail to produce an architectural masterpiece, but I’m coming round to functionality.
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