Brackley Town (1) 1 Walker 21
Gillingham (0) 0
Att. 1,772
Entrance: £6 Senior
Programme: £2
Mileage: 260/4,677
New Ground: 257
Match Report
If Gillingham had been playing a League 2 club and gone out in the circumstances of this match, then most of the disconsolate 200 or so visiting fans leaving St James Park could justifiably claim that "we were unlucky". Four times the ball struck the woodwork and Bradley Dack had a perfectly good goal chalked off, but the opposition were part-timers and luck should not have to play a part and let's face it, Brackley more than deserved their rub of the green for their performance at Priestfield.
With his predecessor, Martin Allen, looking down from the BT Sports commentary box, Peter Taylor, his hand forced somewhat by injury and suspension, chose a team that had a very different look to the one that had performed so admirably at Sheffield United on Saturday. Chris Whelpdale and Cody McDonald were rested and Adebayo Akinfenwa and Antonio German were given rare starts to lead the attack. Certainly, I was not in the minority in wishing that the manager had chosen to go strong from the outset and withdraw players if and when the game was won. I can understand the desire to safeguard McDonald, with the injury to Danny Kedwell perhaps being longer than just this game, but the selection smacked of paying lip-service to the FA Cup and I think that this does a disservice to both the fans and the club itself.
Ultimately, a shot from 25 yards that took a deflection from one of the outstanding performers of the initial tie, Glenn Walker, was enough to seal a place in the second round for the Calor Gas Southern Premier League side. A poor clearance from Leon Legge, led to Charlie Lee being dispossessed in midfield and the winger crashed home for a 21st minute lead.
From that point it was a case of what might have been for the visitors. When Myles Weston was fed the ball, his pace was too hot for the Brackley back line to handle, but, almost without exception the cross was found wanting and when the ball was delivered there was nobody on the end to finish.
Back in 2005, the FA Cup tie at Burscough had that feel about it, that Gillingham were an accident about to happen. A club on the descent, a manager under pressure, a filthy day weather-wise producing a heavy pitch, all the ingredients for a shock. This game never had that same sense of foreboding, despite the early lead for the non-leaguers, until the final few minutes when the desire appeared to evaporate, I felt that somehow, whether it be a lucky break or all the way to penalties, Gillingham were going to escape with some dignity intact. It just didn't happen.
Perhaps I should have expected as much when four minutes from the break, Dack got on the end of a Akinfenwa header to the far post, only to see his effort erroneously chalked off for offside.
Brackley's young goalkeeper, Alastair Worby, who prior to the game had been seen as the possible weak link, must have touched wood for luck at the second half as he watched the ball cannon off the woodwork on four occasions, but he earned his good fortune with a series of saves.
There were a couple of intervening moments when the home side could have put the Gillingham fans out of their misery when Steve Diggin brought a save from Stuart Nelson and Walker pulled a couple of shots wide of the post.
I doubt there were many of the Gillingham fans around at the finish to watch the obligatory pitch invasion; they were left to troop back to their cars, shaking their heads as to how and why their club's Wembley ambitions had been ended for another year.
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