Gillingham 2 Walsall 2

Match 47/13/1074 - Sunday, 29th December 2013 - League One

Gillingham (0) 2 McDonald 46, 90+2
Walsall (0) 2 Sawyers 61, Gray 90
Att. 5,394

Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 45/5,000

Match Report

It’s an old cliché, much over-used, but football sometimes really is “a funny old game”. After two much-enjoyed games over the festive period, I was due a turkey and out of a game that had very little to commend it, came a goal that will live long in the memory and a quite unbelievable finish to the match.

Despite the disappointment of the loss to Leyton Orient on Boxing Day, there were plenty of positives to take into this fixture with Walsall, who sat quite handily outside of the play-off places at the start of play. Peter Taylor, preferred leading scorer, Danny Kedwell in attack to Adebayo Akinfenwa despite the need for Kedwell to have a hernia operation and Akinfenwa’s three goals in two games deputising for the striker.

The first half was a lesson in ball possession for Gillingham as Walsall passed the ball to death with Sam Mantom conducting affairs from deep midfield like the quarter back in an American football team, or the conductor of an orchestra. In front of him, Romaine Sawyers was collecting his passes and weaving patterns that the home defence struggled to contain. But in fairness, for all their possession, 68% in the first half, the visitors failed to test Stuart Nelson with anything other than routine saves and the best chance of the half fell to Kedwell, who failed to get his feet sorted out at the far post and managed only to find the side netting from Cody McDonald’s cross.

It was thought, at least hoped, that the second half would provide a greater source of entertainment at least from a Gillingham point of view and within a minute we were all staring at the pitch in utter disbelief at what we had just witnessed. From a yard outside of the box, McDonald executed an overhead kick that flew into the top corner past the despairing dive of the Walsall goalkeeper, Richard O’Donnell. As much as the Gillingham fans celebrated, the Walsall defenders just looked on in total shock.

Five minutes later with their tails up, Chris Whelpdale lobbed O’Donnell only to see the ball come back from the crossbar before the visitors equalised on 61 minutes. An overhit cross from the left saw Joe Martin fail to clear and the recycled cross found Sawyers in space in the box and although his initial attempt was blocked by Leon Legge, his second effort found the net.

Both sides had chances, with an Adam Barrett header being cleared from the line before the seeming 90th minute jinx struck once more for Gillingham as they failed to clear a Walsall attack and Julian Gray was on hand to cut in from the left of the six yard box and fire home what appeared to be the winning goal.

But this game was not done. Two of the three minutes of added time had expired when a pass through the centre saw McDonald scampering away from his marker. The striker was felled on the edge of the box, but instead of staying on the ground, he got to his feet the quickest and touched the ball into the net to the delight of the Rainham End.

In an amazing climax, McDonald was sent clear once more, but this time the trailing leg of O’Donnell was enough the divert the ball to safety to bring to an end a breathless final five minutes.

All this goes to highlight that live sport, sometimes dull in the extreme, continually serves up the unexpected, as Greavsie would say, oh don’t go there!