Gillingham 1 Brackley Town 1

Match 39/13/1066 - Saturday, 9th November 2013 - FA Cup 1R

Gillingham (0) 1 Dack 90+6
Brackley Town (0) 1 Martin (o.g.) 67
Att. 3,004

Entrance: £15
Programme: £1.50
Mileage: 45/2,977

Match Report

The moment the fourth official raised the board showing six minutes to be added at the end of the game, I uttered the first words all afternoon that hadn’t been a grumble, “that’s a real lifeline.” And so it was, Gillingham’s threadbare hopes of staying in the FA Cup were given a breath of life by virtue of the very man that was holding up the board, the original referee, was the reason that the extra time was allocated. Mr Lee Collins retired from his role in the middle to hand over to Barry Holderness directly after Brackley Town had shocked Priestfield Stadium to its very core in the 67th minute when Joe Martin, under pressure, inadvertently diverted the ball into his own net to give the Conference North side a surprising, but well deserved lead.

The illuminated board acted like an alarm clock, awakening the hosts from their slumbers and for the first time in the game, the part-timers were put under serious pressure. The relatively small Priestfield crowd were exasperated with their own team’s woeful performance and with the time-wasting from, in particular, Brackley’s keeper, Billy Turley, but sensed their opportunity. In the very last of those minutes, Adebayo Akinfenwa sent a header across the face of goal and at the far post, his fellow substitute, Bradley Dack was on hand to sweep the ball into an unguarded net. Time still remained for Akinfenwa to prod a shot goalwards which Turley fumbled it away for a corner.

The final whistle brought a chorus of cheers and boos, either of which could have reflected the embarrassment or the avoidance of. Fair play to Brackley, from the fourth minute when a speculative lob from Steve Diggin dipped onto the bar through to those final minutes when they laid bodies on the line to protect their lead, they matched their League One opponents, but for the second week on the trot, Gillingham were truly shocking, an embarrassment that must put at least the thought in the mind of Paul Scally that Peter Taylor isn’t the man for the vacant managerial position. On that point we will see in the coming week, I still think Taylor is a shoe-in but he, himself, must wonder at the size of the task that he or anybody else faces to put this team back together again.

The first half of this First Round encounter was another horror story following last week’s terrible opening half performance against Carlisle. As with that game, Gillingham went through the entire half without troubling Turley with a single shot on target.

On the hour Turley was forced into his first meaningful save when Danny Kedwell forced the keeper to turn away a drive at the near post, but with that chance gone, Taylor chose to make a triple substitution, one of which the bizarre decision to withdraw central defender Callum Davies and to send Gills’ leading scorer back into defence to replace him. Whether this was instrumental in the Brackley goal, who knows, but a cross from the left by Glenn Walker, who had shown a decent turn of pace and purpose all afternoon, was headed goalwards at the near post by ex-Gillingham player, Gary Mulligan; in a despairing effort to stop the ball arriving at Diggin’s feet, Joe Martin turned the ball into his own net to delight the 231 visiting supporters who had been sensibly housed at the far end of the Gordon Road Stand.

The game might well have been put out of Gillingham’s reach as Stuart Nelson was forced to touch over the bar Walker’s free kick and as the minutes ticked away, Nelson fumbled a shot but recovered to save the follow-up at his post. In between, Gillingham had had a couple of scrambles in the Brackley penalty area when the non-leaguers were literally throwing their bodies in front of the ball to protect their lead.

This continued for the entire six minutes before Dack’s last gasp intervention spared Gills’ blushes.

I celebrated along with everybody else as the ball finally hit the back of the Brackley net, but when the final whistle went I could only concur with the thoughts that we had played our get out of jail card and that we barely deserved our place in the Second Round draw. Those Brackley fans must have had such mixed feelings, gutted at the final whistle, but after a quick reflection, they could only have been very proud of their team’s efforts and who could blame them if they held the opinion that they had nothing to fear in next week’s replay.

Peter Taylor’s after-match interview reflected on the poor performance but, confusingly, he praised the player’s desire and determination which, in my humble opinion was the attribute most lacking. If only that desire had been shown for the first 90 minutes rather than the six added on, then I’m certain that League One quality would have ultimately held sway. We will soon know whether Taylor has impressed on the chairman that he is the man to reinvigorate that desire because the rest of us remain to be convinced.