AFC Bournemouth (1) 3 Purches 20, Zubar 59, Malone 60
Gillingham (1) 3 Payne J 37, Jackman 71, Kedwell 90
Att. 4,282
Entrance: £15
Programme: £2.00
Mileage: 290/1,996
Match Report
A stirring fight back from Gillingham at League One AFC Bournemouth showed there remains some magic to the FA Cup. A competition, diminished with disinterest by the Premiership and even denigrated by its own association, who choose to arrange England friendlies on the day of the first round of its competition, it is still much-loved in the lower divisions and the first round proper remains the Holy Grail of clubs outside of the Football League.At 3-1 down with 20 minutes remaining, Gillingham were facing a First Round exit for a second successive season following last season’s embarrassing demise at the hands of Dover Athletic. Whilst that exit was characterised by sheer lack of backbone, if there were shortcomings in this performance, and there certainly were, a lack of character wasn’t among them.
A visit to a club a Division above was never going to be easy and the visitor’s task was made more difficult with the refusal of the parent clubs to allow Jo Kuffour and Frank Nouble to become cup-tied and injuries to goalkeeper Ross Flitney and central defender Garry Richards. On the positive side back from long term absence came Jack Payne.
Gillingham started very brightly, on a carpet of a pitch that was heavily watered before the game (in November, that’s global warming for you!), they passed the ball neatly and with a home defence probably still shell-shocked from conceding six in midweek, they almost allowed Luke Rooney an opportunity following a mix-up after a mere 20 seconds.
Recent weeks have seen Gillingham stung by long range strikes and after 20 minutes they found themselves behind to another of the same. A corner was only cleared as far as the edge of the box and from 20 yards Stephen Purches fired in a shot that cannoned down from the underside of bar and over the line. Buoyed by this success Bournemouth took control of the game and Scott Malone, a loanee from Wolves, was giving Matt Fish a torrid afternoon. The Gillingham full-back had no answer to Malone’s pace and with Chris Whelpdale offering precious little protection the right hand side of the visitors’ back line was hopelessly exposed. Unfortunately the defender was not only being given a runaround by Malone, but was taking vitriolic abuse from an element of the Gillingham support.
At 37 minutes, Gillingham were barely hanging on to their FA Cup lives when Jack Payne fired in a shot from 35 yards that flew over the head of the Cherries’ keeper Darryl Flahavan to the joy and amazement of the Gillingham contingent that amounted to 376. It was a fantastic strike and presented a perfect argument as to why the Elite Player Performance Plan should have got short shrift from the Football League clubs. Jack is nearly 19 and the new rules will not affect any potential transfer fees that might be earned by the club upon his transfer. The maximum amount that a lower Division club would earn under the new EPPP rule is £190,000. If Jack Payne had left Gillingham for that amount then one club has a bargain and the other has been mugged and we all know how that works.The second half began badly for the visitors and they found themselves two goals adrift on the hour. The first of which was a personal nightmare for stand-in keeper Paulo Gazzaniga, who had to that point had a sound game. A dubious free kick was dropped by the keeper at Stephane Zubar’s feet and the former Plymouth Argyle defender scored from close range.
Worse quickly followed as Wes Thomas was allowed to run half the length of the pitch unchallenged before setting up Malone to crash a shot past Gazzaniga into the roof of the net. The game looked done and dusted for the Gills.
Fortunately, goalkeeping errors were not going to be one-sided and Flahaven offered Gillingham a lifeline with a fumble from a Danny Jackman free kick that allowed the ball to creep into the bottom corner. Andy Hessenthaler had gambled on attacking substitutions with Dennis Oli, Lewis Montrose and Stefan Payne entering the fray and with a minute on the clock remaining it looked as if Payne’s narrow failure to get on the end of a Fish cross might be the final chance. But the never-say-die character emerged and Charlie Lee’s long throw was knocked on by Montrose for Danny Kedwell to bury his shot into the bottom corner before running in celebration to the Gillingham support whose jubilation showed that the FA Cup does really matter.
Special mention must go to Paul Gazzaniga who recovered from his error to keep his side in the game when Bournemouth’s tails were up and Gillingham were left short at the back whilst chasing the game and to Jack Payne who was exceptional considering his two month absence and what a goal to celebrate his return.
In the last three weeks I’ve witnessed enthusiasm for the FA Cup at Redbridge and at Bournemouth, shame on the Association that they belittle the magic of the Cup.
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