Gillingham 4 Bristol Rovers 1

Match 34/11/921 - Saturday, 17 December 2011 - League Two

Gillingham (2) 4 Montrose 8, Kedwell 45,74 (2 pens) Jackman 70
Bristol Rovers (0) 1 Carayol 49
Att. 7,750

Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3.00
Mileage: 45/2,775

Match Report

At the end of a week in which a seat at Priestfield Stadium was the hottest ticket in town, Gillingham finally proved in front of a big crowd that they can be box office.

Many season ticket holders experienced a week of frustration as they attempted to acquire their seats for the upcoming FA Cup tie against Stoke City. The club admitted that it had made a mistake linking the reduced price tickets for Saturday’s League Two fixture against Bristol Rovers with the cup game which culminated in the ticket office being besieged and the phone lines impenetrable. The new online ticketing service supposedly held up well but suffered from customers failing to input correctly as the majority were using it for the first time.

In front of the season’s best 7,750 Gillingham produced their most convincing home performance of the season with some fine individual performances. Danny Jackman was outstanding alongside Lewis Montrose, while Frank Nouble signed off his loan spell in fine style. Bristol Rovers had some useful attackers on show but, apart from a 20 minute spell after half time, Garry Richards marshalled a back line that kept them relatively quiet.

In the past Rovers giant keeper Scott Bevan, formerly with Torquay, has proved difficult to beat, but after just eight minutes a stooping header from Montrose into the bottom corner gave Gillingham an early lead.

Charlie Lee was able to make his Christmas plans midway through the half when a reckless challenge saw him receive his tenth yellow card of the season and a two match ban.

Gillingham increased their lead in time added on with a penalty from Danny Kedwell after Montrose had been brought down.

Bristol Rovers enjoyed their best period of the game immediately after half time and after 51 minutes Mustapha Carayol seized on poor control from Lee and waltzed into the penalty area to beat Ross Flitney from 12 yards. Flitney was called into action again before Gillingham restored their two goal advantage with 20 minutes remaining. Nouble powered into the box and unleashed a shot that Bevan could only beat away to Jackman who returned the ball with interest past the keeper.

The game ended as a contest four minutes later when Cian Bolger, on as a first half substitute, brought down Curtis Weston as he shaped to shoot and was shown the red card. Danny Kedwell confidently took the opportunity to seal the game from the spot to send home those that had acquired their tickets in anticipation of bigger fish to come happy whilst the more committed among us have a busy Christmas period to come including the visit to the Gatwick Galacticos and their much loved manager.

I leave the final paragraph of this posting to say farewell to the Medway News and Standard. In my early days following Gillingham, long before the internet, I would drive literally miles out of my way to pick up both papers. It is a sad consequence of the internet and its ability to deliver instant news that local papers have suffered and in the case of the News gone forever. I've dozens of old copies in my loft and they won't be heading to the recycling at any time in the future.