Gillingham 1 Burton Albion 0

Match 20/10/838 - Saturday, 25th September 2010 - League Two

Gillingham (0) 1 McDonald 50
Burton Albion (0) 0
Att. 4,823

Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 45/2,928

Match Report

One of football’s oldest clichés . . . a game of two halves. Burton ran Gillingham ragged in the first 45 minutes and then they virtually disappeared.

From the very first minute when a Saun Harrad free kick clipped the bar through to the half time whistle, Burton dominated the game and could easily have gone into the break with a three goal advantage.

Harrad and Jacques Maghoma were a particular thorn in the side of a defence that had leaked five goals in the previous game at Bury when Lance Cronin in the Gillingham goal took the blame for the fifth and winning goal. But today, Cronin stood firm and made good saves from Russell Penn and Maghoma before superbly touching over a chip from Harrad that had goal written all over it.

Cronin had Jack Payne to thank when Richard Walker headed a corner goalwards only for the youngster to clear from the line. As half time approached, Gillingham perhaps signalled the turnaround that was about to happen when Cody McDonald smacked a header against the bar following a Chris Palmer corner.

It was the same duo that combined to give Gillingham the lead early in the second half. A Palmer free kick was headed in by McDonald for his first goal for the club. The game had now turned and the home side were in the ascendancy. Danny Spiller and McDonald (twice) brought saves from the Brewers’ keeper, Adam Legzdins while Cronin suffered one heart stopping moment when he misjudged the bounce of the ball whilst out of his area, only to be bailed out by Matt Lawrence.

The game had its sub-plot within the contest as two heavyweights, in the blue corner, Adebayo Akinfenwa and in the yellow corner, Darren Moore came head to head. It was an even contest that flared up in the final minutes with Moore receiving a yellow card, as much for frustration as anything else.

The referee’s whistle brought the game to end with Gillingham’s recovery complete. They had recovered from a first half pasting in which the game could have been put beyond them and also from the defensive nightmare that had been Gigg Lane.

Home victories alone didn’t save Gillingham last season and the longer the away drought goes on, the less chance they can make a success of this term.