Gillingham 1 Crewe Alexandra 3

Match 69/13/1095 - Saturday, 22nd March 2014 - League One

Gillingham (1) 1 Linganzi 30
Crewe Alexandra (1) 3 Aneke 4, 53 Pogba 83
Att. 5,767

Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3.00
Mileage: 45/6,665

Match Report

There is a time, around the last couple of weeks in April when, with 50-plus points on the board, a player, or players, can possibly be forgiven for parking a deck chair and saying “my work is done”; that time is certainly not in March and certainly not with 45 points to the club’s name. Gillingham’s performance against Crewe Alexandra smacked of, almost stank of, complacency, whilst their visitors, in desperate need of points in their own relegation fight, went about their business with a team whose elder statesman was just 25 years of age.

Let’s not beef Crewe Alexandra up to be anything they presently are not. To start with, they looked a side that has shipped 70 goals this season and in their 19-year-old goalkeeper, Ben Garratt, they had a custodian who looked vulnerable under every high cross that Gillingham managed to plant into his six-yard box, unfortunately it wasn’t too many. This was also a Crewe team that arrived at Priestfield without arguably their best player, Harry Davis, who has been ruled out for the rest of the season.

But although we looked down at Alex’s lowly position and pinned the three points on the board in advance (I was as guilty as anyone), we should have known better as this was Crewe's fourth successive victory at Priestfield.

Another case in point, which I highlighted a couple of weeks ago at Bristol City, Crewe had a couple of loan players in their ranks who seemed, not only in terms of physical height, head and shoulders above the standard of player Gillingham have been able to recruit from the loan market. Two-goal Chuks Aneke borrowed from Arsenal and Uche Ikpeazu from Watford were a handful throughout. In fact, given the need for a back-up striker to Olivier Giroud at the Emirates, one wonders if the answer is already in their midst, but, of course, it’s mighty leap from League One to the Premiership.

Gillingham started lethargically, were punished by a fourth minute goal and it set their tempo for the entire match. Ikpeazu powered his way down the right hand side and crossed into the box, after a shot that was blocked the ball fell at the feet of Aneke and he cleverly lifted the ball over the diving body of Stuart Nelson. Gillingham claims that the ball had struck the hand of the initial striker, Anthony Grant, were waved away by referee, Stephen Bratt.

Gillingham forced their way back into the game and the first signs of fallibility under the high ball from Garratt came three minutes later when under a challenge from Adebayo Akinfenwa, the keeper flapped at a cross that fell at the feet of Michael Harriman who fired into the empty net, but Mr Bratt’s whistle had blown for the initial aerial challenge.

After 30 minutes, Garratt’s luck finally ran out as a corner from Elliott Hewitt to the far post was met with a header from Amine Linganzi to record his first goal for the club. Garratt was also involved in an incident just prior to the break when he appeared to handle the ball outside of the penalty area but the linesman decided in the young man’s favour.

Although the first half had not been good from a Gillingham point of view, it was felt there was more than enough in the tank to see them to victory in the second period. Sadly, from a home perspective the half was a complete non-event.

Eight minutes after the restart Grant and Matt Tootle combined to open up the Gillingham back line and Tootle’s cross was superbly met by Aneke who powered a header past Nelson.

Crewe could and should have put the game to bed long before Matthias Pogba, brother of Juventus’ Paul, placed the deftest of flicks past Nelson to seal the points on 82 minutes. Ikpeazu burst into the box and although his pass was slightly behind Pogba, the goalscorer manufactured a classy piece of footwork to score.

Crewe’s elation with three vital points would have been slightly tempered on the bus home with the pointless dismissal of Grant in the final minutes. Two bookings in the space of a couple of minutes, for time-wasting and dissent saw him on his way to a suspension that Crewe could do without as Grant had been one of their better players on the day.

Perhaps the only positive point that Gillingham fans could take away from the afternoon is that if complacency was at the root of this disappointing display then, hopefully, the players would have had a very rude awakening.

From a personal point of view, this was a big Saturday for my favoured clubs. As stated above a win for Gillingham would have all but sealed their safety; Tonbridge were involved in a relegation six-pointer at Whitehawk and Tunbridge Wells, a promotion six-pointer against Ashford. To my despair, all three lost.