Dartford (2) 2 Pallen 20, 26
Gillingham (2) 5 Oli 34, Whelpdale 44, Montrose 60, Rooney 74, 89
Att. 1,010
Entrance: Senior Citizen £6
Programme: £2
Mileage: 56/56
Match Report
Time constraints have left an end of season and pre-season reviews hard to do, so some of the column inches in the pre-season fixtures will be devoted to where we find our clubs following the summer sojourn.For long periods during the close season we were left wondering and worrying what sort of Gillingham team we would be watching come 6th August. Eight players had been shown the door in May and precious little was arriving. There were plenty of rumours, of which some turned out to be fact, but we had to wait until 1st July when it was announced that six signings had already been made. In from Dover came goalkeeper Ross Flitney and full back Matt Fish, Andy Frampton, a defender late of Millwall, midfielder Lewis Montrose arrived from Wycombe, former loanee Chris Whelpdale from Peterborough and striker Danny Kedwell from AFC Wimbledon. There were further reports that the partnership that had kick-started last season would be reinstated with Charlie Lee also arriving from Peterborough and it had been persistently rumoured that 45-goal Dover striker Adam Birchall would eventually become Gillingham’s man; in the coming days both were signed.
Credit has to go to the Chairman for the investment. Lee, Whelpdale, Kedwell and Birchall all commanded undisclosed fees and in the case of the two strikers, no small amounts of money were supposedly involved.
The match at Dartford was Gillingham’s fifth in a somewhat bloated pre-season schedule of 13 matches. My own belated entry into pre-season came a fortnight after the initial friendly at newly-reformed Ashford United that had been postponed from a Saturday to an unhelpful Wednesday.
Most of the new signings had been given run-outs at Ashford, Bromley, Erith and Ramsgate. At Dartford there were first appearances for Frampton and Birchall.
Dartford had little respect for their neighbour’s League status and raced to a two goal lead within the first 25 minutes. Jack Pallen converted a close range header from an unmarked position to open the scoring on 20 minutes and doubled the advantage five minutes later after Flitney’s attempted clearance had been charged down by Lee Burns, leaving Pallen an open net to score from the edge of the box. It was poor keeping from Flitney but he partially atoned himself with an outstretched leg to stop Pallen from completely a hat-trick within half-an-hour. Sadly for Dartford supporters, Pallen then limped out of the game on 33 minutes and Gillingham immediately responded with a headed goal from Dennis Oli to reduce the arrears.
Gillingham levelled the score before half-time when Whelpdale chipped Darts’ keeper Andrew Young who got his hands to the ball but could not prevent it from crossing the line.
Gillingham dominated the second half with Luke Rooney stealing the show. Adam Birchall came on for his first 45 minutes in a Gills shirt and on the hour his superb pass sent Montrose through on goal, who converted with a precise finish.
Rooney cut in from the left to drive a low shot into the bottom left corner on 74 minutes and with a couple of minutes remaining crashed in the best goal of the game, blasting past Young into the top corner following a lay-off from Stefan Payne.
First half defensive frailties would have been noted and Rooney’s fifth pre-season goal marked up as a positive in the build up to the season’s opener at Priestfield against Cheltenham Town.
For my own records last season's figures end up as:
Lifetime matches total: 2,136
Number of grounds: 240
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