Cheltenham Town (0) 1 Hector 67
Gillingham (0) 0
Att. 4,939
Entrance: £22
Programme: £3.00
Mileage: 300/5,659
Match Report
So the champagne stayed on ice. But, given that it has been chilling for the best part of 50 years, it doesn't do any harm to let it wait for another week and enjoy it with the benefit of home comforts and a full house more than ready to acclaim the champions.Port Vale's concession of a 93rd minute goal at Rochdale meant that Gillingham's second away defeat of the season at Cheltenham was reduced to the loss of just a point and another solitary point next Saturday against AFC Wimbledon will be enough to pop the corks on, what will be for I suspect, the majority of their fans, a first-ever divisional title.
The 1,449 travelling support had arrived at Whaddon Road with an expectancy that the job would be completed and that the party could commence but a commited display from the home side, chasing an automatic promotion place of their own, stopped the celebrations in their tracks.
At another point in the season, when points were more precious with Vale breathing down the Gills necks, this would have been considered a poor performance, but the security of a seven point lead with three games remaining allowed the supporters to cut the team a little bit of slack and focus on a big finish at Priestfield.
Throughout the game, Cheltenham showed a touch more urgency, a sense that they needed the result far more than Gillingham and although there was little in the game, the result was just about right.
There was also an inevitability about the result, given the hostile, if anything associated with Cheltenham could be considered hostile, reception that awaited Martin Allen on his return to a former club, that according to some ruined the Gloucestershire club. The noisy, boisterous following from the Medway Towns easily drowned out whatever was thrown at the Gillingham manager, who had been quite open with pre-match comments that he knew he had made mistakes when in charge at Whaddon Road.
The first half was principally Cheltenham's in terms of possession and the lively winger, Jermaine McGlashan causing considerable problems on the right flank. He set up chances for Byron Harrison, Kaid Mohamed and Russell Penn whilst Gillingham's best chance fell to Danny Kedwell who saw his shot well saved by Scott Brown as the ball headed for the top corner.
The second half progressed in much the same fashion with the home side in the ascendancy, with McGlashan impressive, but also deeply irritating with his ability to go to ground at the slightest touch, one such time earning Andy Frampton a booking.
The winning goal came on 67 minutes on the back of a rising sense of injustice towards referee Gavin Ward. A disputed free kick led to a corner from which the towering Michael Hector rose the highest to firmly plant a header past Stuart Nelson.
Gillingham mounted something of a rally to salvage the point that would have been enough to seal the title on the day and Adam Barrett, thrown forward as a supplementary attacker, brought a decent save out of Brown but it was the home side that made the real chances to double their advantage.
The news from Rochdale signalled that neither side had suffered too badly from the outcome of the Whaddon Road encounter and both go forward into their final two fixtures with their eventual destiny in their own hands and the fingers of those hands ready to pop those champagne corks.
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