Gillingham 2 Fleetwood Town 2

Match 38/12/991 - Saturday, 15 December 2012 - League Two

Gillingham (1) 2 Lee 42, Weston 65
Fleetwood Town (2) 2 Brown 20, Goodall 28
Att. 8,571

Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3.00
Mileage: 45/3,272

Match Report

There was a good deal of head-scratching and a minor moral outrage on the opening day of December when Micky Mellon was relieved of his duties as the manager of Fleetwood Town. The man who had overseen the final couple of stages of the club’s meteoric rise from the North West Counties League to the Football League in seven years was dismissed after a run of three defeats that culminated with a cup exit at the hands of Aldershot. From the outside with the club sitting on the fringes of the play-off places, it looked a knee-jerk decision by chairman Andy Pilley, who has reportedly sunk £10 million into the club to fund their (his) ambition of Football League membership and Mellon’s squad that the new manager, Graham Alexander, has inherited, today gave an accomplished display that further begged questions regarding his sacking.

After last week’s hard-earned three points at Rotherham, Martin Allen fielded an unchanged side. A ticket offer boosted the crowd to 8,571 but there was a subdued atmosphere as the game quietly took shape in the opening 20 minutes. Both sides created a half chance before the Lancashire club took the lead when Junior Brown was unmarked at the far post to convert a cross from David Ball.

Steven Gillespie, whose initial shot had set up the opening goal, was then booked after a bizarre incident with Gillingham goalkeeper, Stuart Nelson, who collected an overhit pass but was then wrestled to the ground by the Cod Army striker with a head lock for no apparent reason.

Gillingham found themselves two goals in arrears on 28 minutes following a goal completely at odds with last week’s well-organised defensive display. A straightforward corner into the box from Barry Goodall was met with a powerful, but unchallenged header, from Alan Goodall from the edge of the six yard box, much to the dismay of the completely sold-out Rainham End.

After a lacklustre opening period, the shock of going two behind at least provoked a positive response from the home side. Romain Vincelot, in the side despite last week’s loss of consciousness at Rotherham, pulled a shot wide before Charlie Lee netted the all-important third goal of the match to halve the deficit. A corner was headed on by Danny Kedwell and Lee swept the ball home from close range to set the comeback in motion.

Martin Allen’s introduction of Myles Weston for the second half in place of Deon Burton completely changed the nature of the game. Gillingham went far more direct than in the previous half and although it wasn’t pretty, it did place Fleetwood under considerable pressure as Weston continually got behind their back four with his pace. Twenty-five minutes remained when Vincelot nodded on Lee’s long throw and Weston tucked home from just a couple of yards to level the score.

With the big crowd now finding their voice, there were nervous reminders of the gung-ho nature of the last home game against Exeter and when keeper Nelson was robbed of the ball by Gillespie, who rolled a shot towards an open goal wide, thoughts of preservation of the point gained were uppermost in the mind.

Gillingham exerted considerable pressure in the remaining 20 minutes but Fleetwood expertly extinguished the momentum generated by the comeback leaving the draw as a result that could be interpreted as a point earned by either club.

Micky Mellon will enter the Christmas period as an unemployed football club manager and, on today’s viewing of the first-ever meeting between these two clubs, that seems more than a little unfair.

The classic programme covers that are being replicated for this centenary season today came from the 1984-85 season.