Gillingham 1 Preston North End 2

Match 34/13/1061 - Saturday, 19th October 2013 - League One

Gillingham (0) 1 Kedwell 75
Preston North End (0) 2 Keane 47, Brownhill 52
Att. 7,054

Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3.00
Mileage: 45/2,772

Match Report

Six days have elapsed since I received a text carrying the news that Martin Allen had been sacked, I replied with an expletive and then started to consider the rights and wrongs of the move. In that time, thousands of tweets have been expended on the subject, the vast majority of which portrayed bitter disappointment at Allen's dismissal.

I was undoubtedly shocked by the timing of the dismissal, but wasn't, and shouldn't have been, surprised by the announcement. Rumours had begun to circulate amongst supporters at Crawley in September. I emphasise the word RUMOUR. The word was that all was not well behind the scenes and that the manager and the chairman had fallen out. Mr Scally in subsequent interviews has stated that the dressing room wasn’t good but no made word of any disagreement between the two of them.

The bizarre transfer-listing of four players and then their removal from the list was another twist that just gave further legs to the rumour mill. And the interviews, oh dear those bloody interviews. Twelve months ago we were chortling behind our hands at some of his statements, they were seen as a breath of fresh air in some ways, at the end I know that I’m not alone in finding each one rather embarrassing and cringeworthy.

Peter Taylor had been seen at Gillingham games and once again, the rumour was that he was the man in waiting for the job. All rumours, but so much of it has transpired.

So shocked, but not surprised. Personally, I felt that any manager that had earned his club a promotion deserved a lot more time at the start of a new season at a higher level than Allen was given. It was a bad start, but like the vast majority of Twitter users posting on the subject, I think he probably would have turned it around. But for all that, there is one abiding reason why I’m not sad that Martin Allen has left the club, I didn’t like his style of football and memories of Peter Taylor’s spell 13 years ago give me hope that there will be a change for the better in terms of style.

Rome wasn’t built in a day though, so it was always going to be too much to ask that three training sessions and there would be a bright new dawn. There were a few encouraging signs, Stuart Nelson rolled the ball out to a full back more times in the course of one half than he has for the rest of the season and although the midfield continued to struggle, they at least tried to play the ball on the ground.

Taylor might well have wished for a slightly easier re-introduction than Preston North End. In Kevin Davies and Stuart Beavon they have an experienced, robust strike force that cause problems for defenders up and down the country. Davies ruffles feathers, angers opposing supporters with the odd flailing arm, but how you would want him in your team, while Beavon, brought into league football by Taylor at Wycombe, is quality.

Most of the chances in the first half fell to Preston, the best of which saw tricky winger, Chris Humphrey bring out a decent parrying save from Nelson.

Having done well to get to the break all-square, some dozy defending quickly undid the hard work at the start of the second half. A throw-in sent Keith Keane clear, unchallenged and his shot from the right hand side of the box found the far corner of the net.

Before Gillingham could clear the heads they found themselves two down. A swift counter-attack ended with Beavon squaring the ball to Josh Brownhill who had the easiest of finishes.

Gillingham responded with substitutions, Myles Weston and Antonio German being introduced and with 15 minutes remaining they gave themselves the opportunity of a grandstand finish. A Chris Whelpdale free kick was met by the head of Danny Kedwell, who steered it into the far corner.

Unfortunately, Preston were pretty adept at winding down the clock and they comfortably saw the game out despite the hosts’ best efforts.

This is the dawn of another new era, we’ve had far too many new dawns over the last eight years and although Taylor is introduced as the interim manager, it’s not a brain surgeon’s guess that he has the job to lose. The club needs stability and Taylor is a safe pair of hands that can offer a little bit of the style that is felt lacking. It might even be a bit dull without the Mad Dog!