Gillingham (0) 0
Rotherham United (0) 0
Att. 3,248
Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3.00
Mileage: 45/3,718
Match Report
The rot has been stopped, it was an improvement, it was a clean sheet and the newly introduced youngsters all acquitted themselves admirably, all positive conclusions to be drawn.However, it was another game without winning, a run now totalling seven games, and the deficit between Gillingham and the play-off places widened a little more.
But the most disturbing statistic of the night was the attendance of 3,248, the lowest since 1995, the worst of the Scally era. We are now down to the hard-core support with I suspect even a few season ticket holders giving this re-arranged game a swerve. Saturday attendances tend to hold up better and this weekend’s visit from Torquay United is also a game covered by the Sun offer, but I really fear that Tuesday night’s match against Hereford United, who are probably going to struggle to match Rotherham’s massed ranks of 57, might well see the gate tumble below the 3,000 mark.
Andy Hessenthaler felt that the previous weekend’s defeat at Port Vale had shown sufficient promise for him to name an unchanged side. Simon King was fit enough to play a second match in three days and youngsters Jack Evans and Connor Essam retained their places in a completely changed back four from the last home game. Evans went on to win the man of the match award, King would have been my pick and Essam, along with Paulo Gazzaniga between the sticks, did very little wrong.
Gillingham had the best of the chances in the first half hour. Joe Kuffour shot into the side netting, Curtis Weston spurned a golden chance on 18 minutes and on the half hour, Evans showed his confidence with the well hit drive from 30 yards that cleared the cross bar, but not by much.
However, it was Rotherham that had the ball in the net after 37 minutes. Danny Harrison’s header appeared to be goalbound until Lewis Grabban inexplicably touched the ball over the line with his hand, to not only disallow the goal but earn him a booking for his trouble.
Gillingham began the second half in the ascendancy forcing several corners but as the half wore on it was the visitors that finished the stronger. At the final whistle it had been a valiant effort from the back four to preserve their clean sheet and the man of the match award could have gone to any one of them.
One might guess that it is going to take a lot more than a goalless draw to entice the less committed back to Priestfield this season and despite the improvement in performance there was little to suggest that Gillingham are about to embark on a winning run that will put them back among the play-off hopefuls. It will be interesting to see how this team might evolve over the coming couple of months with a couple more youngsters waiting in the wings for their chance, but that alone will not be enough to fill an empty seat near you.
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