Port Vale (0) 0
Gillingham (0) 0
Att. 6,420
Entrance: £19
Programme: £2.50
Mileage: 548/4,258
Match Report
Solid at last! No, I’m not talking about a British athlete home from Delhi, but something far more unlikely, a Gillingham away performance.Shorn of his main strike force for a visit to Vale Park, home of the League leaders Port Vale, manager Andy Hessenthaler needed a brand new masterplan to extract anything from the game. Surprisingly he chose to start with Dennis Oli as a lone striker with Curtis Weston tucked in behind.
It was not too far removed from the controversial 4-6-0 formation employed by Scotland in Prague, but Oli chased balls into the channels and posed enough of a threat to ensure that the hosts could not take any liberties with their own defensive set up. Weston also seemed to revel in his new role and looked more like his old self.
Though it was defensive in its make-up Gillingham were more of an attacking threat than their hosts and when a Mark Bentley effort on 68 minutes struck a post, a goal would have been no more than the visitors deserved. At the back, Matt Lawrence commanded, Barry Fuller was back to his belligerent best and Kevin Maher tidied up in front of the back four as Gillingham restricted Port Vale to a couple of late chances and a blistering shot from Gary Roberts that was only marginally wide.
As a group the perception must have been that Gillingham would be under pressure from the first whistle and when the whistle blew for half time, no only had they survived without a major scare, but also taken the game to Port Vale, there was a great deal of satisfaction In the goalless scoreline.
The best of the chances were fashioned by the Gills, Oli shot over, by a distance, after 10 minutes and in the 38th minute, Gareth Owen produced a fabulous block to deny Chris Palmer.
As the second half progressed neither keeper was being forced into making world class saves but Gillingham continued to make the half chances. Weston shot straight at Stuart Tomlinson, and on a couple of occasions, centre back Tony Sinclair just failed to get on the end of crosses. 6-4-0 formation and it is a centre back that is getting into the box, way to go I say!
The moment when Gillingham fans thought the away drought was about to end came when Mark Bentley cut in from the right, curled a shot past Tomlinson, but to the despair of those faithful fans, the ball struck a post and was cleared to safety.
It would have been a complete injustice two minutes later had Alan Julian not made a double save to thwart Marc Richards.
The Gillingham contingent rose in appreciation of the hard work that had been put in by Dennis Oli and Curtis Weston on their substitution with 10 minutes remaining. In truth, Oli looked as though he running on empty for a good 10 minutes previous, but it was a splendid effort.
One final chance to end the dismal away day blues fell to Bentley, but his header was straight at the keeper. Gillingham fans, nearly 300 in total, saluted their side at the final whistle for a point well earned, but I wonder, in their cars, on their coaches, after 20 minutes or so of reflection they would have thought to themselves, tonight we should be going home with the damn monkey off our back.
I like Vale Park, it has a proper football ground feel about it. There are a few pillars that can impede the eyeline, but when the away support only fills a couple of blocks they are not a problem.
Four years ago when I last visited the Lorne Street Stand was uncompleted and it still is. For those of a certain vintage and can remember the detective show, Petrocelli, who in between solving murder cases was building his own home. Sadly, because he had a new case every week, the house never got finished. Perhaps a Burslem detective is being employed to build the stand.
The acoustics under the Sneyd Stand roof gave a great help to the Gillingham choir and 288 sounded like many more and, the odd expletive apart, were absolutely fantastic in their support.
A special mention to the May Street chippy who served up, in my opinion, the best fish and chips of the season so far, to round off a very satisfying day.
The Petrocelli Stand!
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