Gillingham 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers 0

Match 48/13/1075 - Friday, 3rd January 2014 - League One

Gillingham (0) 1 McDonald 90+2
Wolverhampton Wanderers (0) 0
Att. 7,758

Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 45/5,180

Match Report

In my mind, I begin to assemble my thoughts on a game with a few minutes remaining and these thoughts eventually become the posts you read on That’ll Be The Day. On this occasion, I was thinking along the lines of a spirited rearguard action that had brought a hard-earned point against one of the division’s top sides. But, those thoughts were about to change, we had already had a warning that the Priestfield bewitching hour was upon us as Leon Legge cleared a header from Wolves’ Sam Ricketts from the line. But this time the 90th minute jinx was about to be turned on its head as Gillingham won a corner in the last of two minutes added time. Jake Hessenthaler delivered from the right, Legge rose, but the ball only skimmed the top of his head and perhaps this caught Ricketts by surprise as the ball rebounded off his shins into the path of Cody McDonald who smashed the ball into the net from six yards to the wild celebration of the home support.

I’m not sure I can concur with the exultation of the Sky Sports commentator who proclaimed a “famous victory”, after all we are in the same division and this is not the first time that a Wolverhampton Wanderers team has left Priestfield empty-handed but it was undoubtedly a memorable win, if only for the lateness of the winning goal.

The match had progressed in much the way that most would have expected it to have done. Wolves dominated possession throughout, ultimately occupying 65 per cent of the ball, their corner count far outweighing that of their hosts as did their shots tally, but when it came to the number of real saves that Stuart Nelson was asked to make then, in truth, it amounted to just two.

In a first half of very few chances, the best of which fell to the visitors. After eight minutes, a right wing cross from James Henry was met by a sliding Michael Jacobs, but his toe-ender merely deflected the ball into the welcoming hands of Nelson. On the half-hour, a high cross into the area from Henry brought some desperate defending as Nelson missed a punch to clear, all too reminiscent of the goal conceded against Leyton Orient, this time the referee came to his aid with the award of a free kick.

Nelson’s save of note in this half came in the 38th minute when Jacobs burst into the box and his shot brought a good parrying save from the Gills’ keeper.

Gillingham were forced into an early second half substitution after 50 minutes when Charlie Lee limped out of the action to be replaced by Bradley Dack and this, coupled with the later introduction of Adebayo Akinfenwa, was to have a significant bearing on the game. Within five minutes of his introduction, fastening onto a Danny Kedwell pass, Dack turned inside his marker and his pass opened the way for McDonald to bring a good, low save out of Wolves’ debutant keeper, Aaron McCarey.

Whilst the visitors were maintaining their high percentage of possession, they were becoming less of a threat with Steven Gregory doing a fine job as the defensive midfield anchorman. Ten minutes remained when Akinfenwa flicked on a header to Kedwell, who outmuscled Danny Batth to strike a shot from the right hand side of the box that agonisingly hit a post with McCarey well beaten.

Had our moment come and gone without reward? That appeared to be the case, but when that 92nd minute corner was won, the Rainham End sensed that something extraordinary was about to happen. They rose to their feet and up went the decibel levels as the young Hessenthaler prepared to take the corner. The rest, as they say, is history but will live long in the memory.

Wolves failure on the night to secure the three points resulted in their position behind Leyton Orient at the top of the table remaining the same, but a look at the Wolverhampton Express and Star website, who described them as woeful and the subsequent comments from supporters, you would never believe they are second in the table with calls for certain players never to wear the gold and black again and the removal of Kenny Jackett, Jez Moxey and the owner, Steve Morgan. With that in mind, perhaps this was a famous victory, because in the eyes of some of the Molineux faithful, they are obviously way too big for this humble division.