Faversham Town (1) 2 Wilson 11, Rowland 74
Gillingham (2) 4 Millbank 15, Dack 23, Birchall 66, 76
Att. est 500
Entrance: £4 Senior
Programme: None issued
Match Report
I cannot remember ever starting pre-season in June and it must also be a first to start with a double-header for the same club. The relatively close proximity of Faversham to Ashford (around 18 miles) offered the opportunity to watch both games (with the element of missing a little of both) that, following a summer without tournament football, I found irresistible.
I haven’t been to Faversham since Tonbridge’s Kent League days in the early 1990’s and it hasn’t changed much in the intervening years. On a warm day, Gillingham fans turned out in decent numbers to see their championship winning side which had been split into two for the both venues and added to with development squad and youth team players plus a couple of young triallists at Ashford that were the only players to play a full 90 minutes. With over 40 players on show in a Gillingham shirt alone, let alone the countless substitutions that were made by the non-league opposition it was difficult, impossible to recognise who was who. So, it has to be considered a lost opportunity by both clubs that even a single page team sheet that could have been sold for 50p or a quid wasn’t produced.
To arrive at Ashford, within 10 minutes or so of the kick-off was going to mean leaving the Faversham game with about quarter of an hour to go. The first half team at Faversham was the strongest with Bradley Dack the stand-out performer. The home side opening the scoring with a peach of a free kick from Wayne Wilson into the top corner that gave Stuart Nelson no chance. Gillingham responded and goals from Aaron Millbank, who tucked in a rebound off a post and a sublime chip from Dack that did nothing but emphasise his quality. Of the youngsters, Stephen Butcher looked a bit of a prospect.
The half hour of the second period that I watched saw transfer-listed Adam Birchall show a sharpness that is going to be an asset to whoever he plays his football for this coming season. He found a yard of space in which to plant a stooping header past a man mountain of a goalkeeper to put the visitors a couple of goals to the good. In my absence Faversham pulled a goal back before Birchall smacked home his second from 20 yards to record a final 4-2 score line.
And off to Ashford . . .
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