Gillingham (1) 2 Akinfenwa 43, Weston 46
Bradford City (0) 0
Att. 5,019
Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 45/7,965
Match Report
Alex Ferguson was famed for throwing tea cups and, doubtless, Arsene Wenger will take a more professorial approach to the half time team talk, but I wonder what goes on in the referee’s dressing room during the break. Is it likely that the fourth official is going to storm through the doors and say, “hey referee, you have had a really shit half”, perhaps it might be one of his linesman, but this afternoon somebody really needed to tell Steve Rushton that he was really, really crap.Parents know that if you fill kids with coke and chocolate you end up with a hyperactive nightmare, Rushton sprang out of the traps as if on the end of a 10 Mars bar binge. Perhaps he was disturbed by losing his fourth official in the dressing room causing a seven minute delay to the start of the game, but for 45 minutes he decided that he was centre stage and that he would be seen and certainly heard. Every 20 seconds, or so it seemed, the whistle blew for yet another mystifying decision. The game never got going, mainly because it was always stopped.
The second half, with the effects of the Mars bars wearing off, was a quieter period with some football actually breaking out from behind the whistle and thankfully, the game might be remembered in time for a fabulous strike from Curtis Weston and not the referee.
Gillingham desperately needed to break the run of draws and a fit again Andy Barcham was recalled to the starting line-up to add much needed width. The visitors, Bradford City, with Peter Jackson at the helm for the first time following the resignation of ex-Gillingham manager Peter Taylor, were one big lump of a side. Their central defender, Luke Oliver, omnipresent in the Gillingham area for every set piece was a mountain of a man that shrank his six feet team mates to mere mortals. With such size available, the route one method was an obvious tactic and though it was exploited to the full, when they got on the end of crosses the direction of their headers was wayward.
After 20 minutes of constant whistle and stoppages the referee called the captains together and must have said, “look, I’m having a really shit game, I can’t fake an injury as the fourth official has already done that, so let’s see if we can get to half time and I can ask the others where I’m going wrong. With that he duly booked Kevin Maher, for what? and Fuller for something else mysterious. His worst decision though was the award of a free kick with Barcham sprinting clear and the booking of Bradford’s Lewis Hunt to cover his embarrassment.
As half time approached and all talk during the break to be about the referee, Gillingham found a goal to give us something else to discuss. Jack Payne fed a pass to Weston, who looked to have missed a shooting opportunity as his first touch took him too wide, but he stood up a cross to the far post from where Adebayo Akinfenwa headed home.
The highlight of the game came within a minute of the restart. Weston won the ball on the right hand side, drove forward ten yards and let fly a guided missile that had Bantams’ keeper Lenny Pidgeley grasping at thin air. It was Weston’s third goal in four games and they have all been similar in their execution.
Bradford continued their aerial assault throughout the second half and although Matt Lawrence and Garry Richards stood up well to the challenge, several opportunities were fashioned for the big guys but their heading was way off beam.
At the final whistle, Gillingham were well worth their victory and thanks to Curtis Weston, we will be talking about his goal tonight and not Mr Rushton.
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