Gillingham (1) 0 Montrose 45
Oxford United (0) 0
Att. 5,819
Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3.00
Mileage: 45/1,501
Match Report
The inscription on the title page of Andy Bradley and Roger Trigg’s legendary book, Home of the Shouting Men, reads: Gillingham is written in the Domesday Book as Gelingeham. It is thought to have derived its name from the Gilingas, a warrior tribe known as the “shouting men”. In recent times Priestfield has been more the home of the Whispering men and the warrior tribe a collective of librarians.The visit of Oxford United, and more importantly, referee Gavin Ward brought the Shouting Men back to Priestfield as adversity brought out the best in Gelingeham supporters.
It is a strange phenomenon that new stadiums (or refurbished as in the case of Priestfield) has brought about a change of nature in the people that sit in the seats. Cesc Fabregas and Sami Nasri recently made the point about the Emirates and my experience of over 20 visits to the new Wembley is that the atmosphere is more like a respectful night at the theatre rather than a passionate sporting arena.
Oxford United arrived as a side in form and as such they were able to afford the luxury of leaving leading scorer Andy Constable on the bench. Gillingham decided not to rush their leading scorer, Danny Kedwell back and stayed with the side that won handsomely at Torquay last Saturday.
The visitors enjoyed the best of the opening half, creating and wasting a host of chances, the best of which saw a good block from Ross Flitney as Robert Hall got clear on goal. It was against the run of play when Gillingham took the lead on the stroke of half time. The lively Jo Kuffour wriggled his way into the box and forced Oxford keeper Ryan Clarke to beat the ball to the safety of the edge of the box from where Lewis Montrose rifled the ball into the top left corner of the net to the delight, and surprise of the Whispering Men.
The first half had seen the now familiar scenario regarding the crowd at Priestfield, the Rainham End were subdued and, around me in the Gordon Road Stand, folk were getting agitated with the home’s lack of authority on the game.
The second half started with a second booking for Joe Martin on 49 minutes. The booking appeared harsh, although general opinion seems to say that Mr Ward got it right. Martin’s first half booking was unfortunate as a loss of footing left him the wrong side of Damian Batt and his subsequent attempt to retrieve the situation saw him bringing down the Oxford full back.
The first sign of adversity galvanised the Priestfield crowd and they rallied behind Gillingham’s ten men as the visitors used their numerical advantage and poured forward in search of an equaliser. A mixture of good goalkeeping, last ditch defending and profligate wastefulness wound the clock down with the home side’s lead intact.
Relief fleetingly appeared as Kuffour put the ball into the net following a breakaway but this was stifled by an offside flag. With two minutes remaining Gillingham’s task became so much harder as Montrose saw red for a rash challenge on Asa Hall. The Oxford staff were off the bench to a man and their reaction might well have influenced the referee. From the distance of the Gordon Road Stand it was difficult to see whether it was a challenge of a straight red and television pictures are hardly more conclusive.
Five agonising minutes were added and Priestfield rocked, the Shouting Men had returned. Gillingham handled the extra time well and didn’t really suffer a scare, to the frustration of the visitors who picked up a further two yellows bringing their total to six, bizarrely Gillingham had no other cards apart from the two reds. The final whistle brought the house down as the fans stayed on to acclaim their favourites for the backs-to-the-wall effort.
Andy Hessenthaler, in his radio interview, almost seemed to brush aside the effect of the fans, choosing to comment that he needed them to be behind his side from the outset. It’s the original chicken and egg scenario, more often than not it takes a spark on the pitch to raise those off it, on this occasion it was adversity. Welcome home, the Shouting Men.
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