Torquay United 1 Gillingham 1

Match 44/10/862 - Saturday, 22 January 2011 - League Two

Torquay United (1) 1 Benyon 6
Gillingham (0) 1 Rooney 87
Att. 2,368

Entrance: £18
Programme: £2.50
Mileage: 460/6,967

Match Report

Gillingham’s visit to a chilly Plainmoor was a mirror image of the corresponding fixture at Priestfield in October. Same scoreline that was arrived at via a late equaliser for the visitors; a mistake from Gillingham keeper, Alan Julian, whilst his counterpart, Scott Bevan produced a Man of the Match winning performance. It is, perhaps, stretching the coincidence, but both games ended with one team ending the match a manager light on the bench, back in October, Andy Hessenthaler missed the second half having been taken ill, whilst Paul Buckle was removed from the dug out following an altercation with referee Graham Scott.

Fielding an unchanged side, Gillingham got off to the worst possible start. The visitors defence, so sound in recent weeks, looked unsettled. Barry Fuller had already put his fellow defenders under pressure with a misplaced pass before repeating the offence in the sixth minute. The skipper gave the ball away to Euan O’Kane, whose shot from 20 yards should have been collected by the goalkeeper. Julian spilt the effort and the livewire Elliot Benyon was on-hand to snaffle the rebound. The keeper complained that he had recovered the ball and it was kicked from his hands but his protestations were turned away by referee Scott.

The goal shook Gillingham to the core and the following minutes saw their back line put themselves under pressure with mistake following mistake. Josh Gowling, in particular, looking completely out of sorts, but it was the frizzy-haired central defender that almost levelled for the visitors after 20 minutes. A Danny Spiller corner was headed goalwards by Gowling which was brilliantly parried by Bevan, the rebound falling once again to Gowling and this time his return shot was turned away by the 6’5” inch custodian.

The near miss served to spur the visitors forward and for the rest of the half they held the balance of play with the game becoming Scott Bevan versus the opposition. He made good saves from Cody McDonald, Andy Barcham and Danny Jackman with a speculative lob from McDonald turned over the top when a shorter keeper would not have got near. A thumping drive from Jackman was just too high as the visitors finished the half strongly but still a goal down.

The game might well have been beyond Gillingham’s reach had Torquay’s big central defender, Mark Ellis buried a corner early in the second half. He rose unchallenged to power a header wide of the post when it seemed easier to score.

Gillingham were struggling to recover their first half momentum before Adebayo Akinfenwa was introduced for Spiller on the hour. I must admit I didn’t realise that the big striker had a spell at Plainmoor and this was the reason his entrance was greeted with boos from the so-called Ultras. Meanwhile Alan Julian was making recompense for his mistake with good saves from Benyon and Chris Zebroski.

Luke Rooney entered as a substitute for the ineffective Barcham as the manager gambled on attack to retrieve a point. Rooney curled a shot wide of the post before finding the net with three minutes left on the clock. Akinfenwa did well to retain possession before passing to Rooney in the left wing area, the youngster struck a shot from the corner of the box and with the aid of a deflection the ball found the bottom right hand corner. The sizeable following of 432 joyously greeted the goal, but not quite as much as the scorer. I’ve, not maliciously, called Rooney a bit of a headless chicken and his celebratory run to the bench was that of the same. No-one cared, it had secured a point that the visitors richly deserved.

This was my first visit to Torquay for a number of years. The terrace that housed the visiting support has been replaced by a modern covered standing area, but we chose to sit in the main grandstand that is not so grand and, frankly, should be condemned. The wooden structure is somewhat quaint but has long since seen better days. The wooden seats are downright uncomfortable and the view obstructed by supporting pillars. To enter the seating turnstile there was a queue of about ten people that took an age to get to the front. The turnstile operator, an elderly gentleman, was meticulously taking a ticket from his book, punching a hole in the stub before removing it and handing you the other end. What was the purpose of the punch? Perhaps he was a bus conductor in his previous job!

The stewards in the grandstand were continually counting the number of available seats and relaying the information back to the turnstile; surely it would have been easier for the bloke to have only the right amount of tickets! But it all added to the quaintness of the place. A pleasant walk along the cliff tops at Babbacombe Downs to some rather expensive but tasty fish and chips added to a satisfactory day where a point was a result I would have taken on the way in.