Gillingham 2 Exeter City 3

Match 34/12/987 - Tuesday, 20 November 2012 - League Two

Gillingham (1) 2 Whelpdale 4, Jackman 79
Exeter City (0) 3 Gow 27, Cureton 54, 86
Att. 6,851

Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3.00
Mileage: 45/2,149

Match Report

Sometimes in life you just have to settle for what you have got. A wistful look in the estate agents’ window might allow you to dream about the four-bedroom detached house in a quiet cul-de-sac but the reality is, do you really want the mortgage that goes with it? Or perhaps it’s the shining new car on the garage forecourt that takes your eye, but your slightly high mileage vehicle is still fit for purpose. Truth is, a glass half empty is exactly what it says it is half a glass and more often than not, it is better than nothing at all.

Gillingham’s willingness to throw caution to the wind (and the rain, on a torrid night) was admirable, but once Danny Jackman’s bolt from the blue had rescued the game, then a little pragmatism would not have gone a miss. They chased the game with wild abandon, they failed to heed a warning when Stuart Nelson saved Jamie Cureton’s penalty, but still they left the back door open to concede defeat to an Exeter side, that ranked among the best we have seen at Priestfield this season.

Gillingham got off to the best possible start, hitting the woodwork in the opening minute and following a superb through pass from Lewis Montrose, Chris Whelpdale was able to steer the ball over the advancing Grecian keeper, Artur Krysiak for the opening goal after four minutes.

Exeter recovered well from the setback and whilst referee Deadman’s award of a free kick against Charlie Lee on 27 minutes might have been debatable there was no doubting of the quality of Alan Gow’s beautifully flighted free kick to level the score. The home side created several chances before the break, Lee twice saw headers hacked away from the line whilst Ben Strevens and Deon Burton failed to test the keeper with shots that went close.

In the 57th minute, a corner for the visitors found its way to the far post where the 37-year-old predator, Cureton was lurking to smash the ball into the roof of the net. It was now a necessary evil for the home side to have to throw bodies forward and while chances fell to Myles Weston and Callum Davies, their vulnerability to the counter attack was all too apparent.

Eleven minutes remained when Gillingham got their salvation in the form of Jackman’s thunderbolt from 25 yards into the top corner. The Rainham End roared their appreciation and urged the home side forward for a winner and any sense of defending what they had was lost in the excitement.

Into the last five minutes and when Romain Vincelot brought down Jimmy Keohane on the edge of the box it appeared that all was lost, but Nelson made a fine save from Cureton’s penalty, but was the lesson learnt, sadly not. Just a minute later, Cureton made amends when he converted Liam Sercombe’s cross with a free header from close range and Gillingham’s folly of throwing everything in search of the three points was at an end.

Martin Allen’s side should not be criticised; they showed ambition and a bucket load of endeavour but, almost without doubt, they are going to find themselves in situations like this one again and if next time they emerge with just half-a-glass, they might realise that this is not an empty glass.

The classic programme covers that are being replicated for this centenary season today came from the 1981-82 season.