Northampton Town (2) 2 Beckwith 21, McKenzie 40 (pen)
Gillingham (1) 1 McDonald 7
Att. 4,573
Entrance: £19
Programme: £3
Mileage: 400/4,797
Match Report
Nearly 900 Gillingham fans made the two hour journey north to witness the big opportunity to rid ourselves of the worst away record in the Football League. One day this wretched run will come to an end and Northampton, on a run of six straight defeats, were visualised as prime candidates to get the damn monkey off our back.Within five minutes the visiting fans were celebrating. Cody McDonald had a credible shout for a penalty refused and when he got weaved his way past Dean Beckwith a second time, the Cobblers central defender brought him down on the edge of the box. The resultant free-kick produced a perfect training ground set piece, John Nutter squaring the ball to Chris Palmer who rifled an unstoppable shot into the bottom corner. It was a wonderful start and for 15 minutes Gillingham completely dominated proceedings as the home side struggled to come to terms with their pace and movement.
What happened next was inexplicable; I certainly fail to understand quite what changed. Did Gillingham suffer stage fright, a fear of winning or did Northampton just take advantage of the fragility of the visitors back line that, on the day, defended poorly as a unit.
Matt Lawrence put in his worst performance since joining the club, which unsettled Tony Sinclair, or was it the other way round. Either way as a central unit they did not function. Barry Fuller was constantly caught in positions he shouldn’t be and John Nutter’s distribution was awful.
Northampton’s equaliser arrived on 21 minutes but it had been coming for some minutes earlier. The home side had a series of corners from which Gillingham avoiding conceding by the skin of their teeth. Another corner was sent to the far post where ex-Gillingham defender Beckwith rose above Lawrence to head past Alan Julian.
Leon McKenzie enjoyed a spell following the goal in which he tormented the Gillingham defence, Lawrence in particular, and saw three efforts in quick time either high or wide. Five minutes before the break the home side were awarded a dubious penalty. Lawrence and Beckwith appeared from my long distance view to be wrestling each other as they contested a cross, but the referee felt Lawrence was the offender and from the spot McKenzie coolly converted.
The second half saw Gillingham hold a lot of the possession and as such it could be argued that an equaliser might have been deserved, but the truth is that they hardly tested Northampton keeper, Chris Dunn. Upfront, McDonald had a lively opening but in the following 75 minutes suffered from poor service, while Adebayo Akinfenwa had a nightmare return to his old club. His first touch was heavy throughout and whilst claims had been made in the match programme that “on his day, he can be unplayable”, Beckwith and Hinton kept him quiet with relative ease.
Danny Spiller and Dennis Oli injected some life into the performance on their introduction and Akinfenwa and McDonald combined to force a save from Dunn. Gillingham huffed and puffed their way through the final 15 minutes exerting some pressure but Dunn was only asked to make comfortable saves.
The day had started out with great optimism and the opening blitz from Gillingham added to the sense of expectation but once again we fell short, in truth, a long way short. Somewhere, someday this away run will be broken but right now I cannot see where it might end. Will it end at Stimson’s Barnet, I wouldn’t bet on it, he is going to have his players right up for that one and today was just another example of when a side exerts pressure on Gillingham away from home, they just don’t cope. Oxford come before Barnet, well you never know . . . what I do know, is that, today, 881 Gillingham supporters deserved a lot better.
It has been a while since I visited Sixfields, an out-of-town stadium on a retail estate that has the architectural soul of a B&Q. Over the years the maroon seats have become sun bleached detracting further its visual effect and even the toilets have a care-worn look, but £1.80 for a cup of tea; that really is taking the piss.
No comments:
Post a Comment