Bristol City 2 Gillingham 1

Match 62/13/1089 - Saturday, 1st March 2014 - League One

Bristol City (1) 2 Baldock 27, Gillett 83
Gillingham (0) 1 Lee 65
Att. 11,422

Entrance: £16
Programme: £3
Mileage: 350/6,292

Match Report

Twelve games remaining is perhaps a little early to be labelling this period as squeaky-bum time, but there are more than a few Gillingham supporters that are beginning to nervously look over their shoulders as three successive defeats have left their favourites with a rapidly decreasing points advantage over those presently occupying the bottom four.

I’ve been fully confident that Gillingham will survive, and to all intents and purposes, my feelings remain the same. But there are flies in that ointment. Looking at the remaining fixtures and present form, the main bulk of the 14 or so points required needs to come from home fixtures. Wins against teams in the mini-league facing relegation, Crewe, Tranmere and Shrewsbury, would go a long way to meeting the target, but defeats, albeit away defeats, against Stevenage, Oldham, Colchester and now, Bristol City, in recent weeks suggests that lower doesn’t necessarily mean easier.

Some Gillingham fans from among the 512 that travelled to Ashton Gate may have departed Bristol feeling that their efforts deserved a point, but I’m not in that camp. They didn’t contribute greatly in a first half in which Bristol City, given their own perilous league position, looked decidedly nervous. Fair play to the visitors they came out a different side in the second half and put their hosts under real pressure and by the time of their equaliser were deserving of their parity. Unfortunately they were unable to maintain their momentum and the points were taken away from them virtue of a wonder strike seven minutes from time.

There were early signs that the midfield creativity of Wade Elliott and Simon Gillett would dominate proceedings in that area of the pitch with Elliott setting up early chances for Bobby Reid and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas that failed to trouble Stuart Nelson.

Elliott was to the fore in the 27th minute move that led to Bristol City’s opening goal. A cross-field pass evaded Elliott Hewitt and Sam Baldock had an ocean of space to turn inside and strike from the angle of the six-yard box.

Peter Taylor chose to replace the ineffective Amine Linganzi at the half-time break with Charlie Lee and Gillingham emerged from the dressing room with attacking intentions. Bradley Dack picked out a pass to Cody McDonald after a couple of minutes, the striker bringing a save from Frank Fielding at the near post. Connor Smith recycled the parry and his cross to the far post was eventually shot narrowly wide by Adebayo Akinfenwa.

Myles Weston was introduced as a 55th minute substitute for Smith and from his corner ten minutes later, Gillingham got their well-deserved equaliser. The corner, hit beyond the right hand side of the six-yard box was superbly hooked back into the centre of the area by Akinfenwa and Lee was on hand to crash home a shot from the seven yards.

For a few encouraging minutes, Gillingham held the balance of play before Elliott and Gillett regained control of the game. A long throw into the Gillingham box was headed clear to Gillett who took a touch to shift the ball to his right and let fly from 22 yards with a shot that rocketed into the top corner.

Elliott and Gillett are both loan players, from Birmingham and Nottingham Forest respectively, and if they both remain at Ashton Gate, you would guess that they would supply the necessary quality to lift Bristol City to safety.

Plans are afoot to virtually rebuild Ashton Gate, starting this summer and, from a visiting supporter’s point of view, it cannot come quickly enough. It is difficult, almost impossible, to find a view that isn’t restricted by the roof’s supporting pillars unless you are in the first three rows. After 20 minutes of swaying side to side to see around one of the offending pieces of steelwork we decided that a lowly position was much the better alternative.

Disappointment at the result at Bristol turned to despair when I learnt of the scoreline from Boreham Wood, where I would undoubtedly been had it not for the trip to Bristol City. A 7-0 hammering for Tonbridge emphasised that at some places squeaky-bum time is most definitely upon us.