Gillingham (1) 2 Martin 35, Kedwell 55
Yeovil Town (0) 0
Att. 5,173
Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: Sold Out
Mileage: 52/827
Match Report
Nothing can be worse on match day than the wife coming in from the supermarket to inform you that you have a flat tyre. As an aside from football, why do garages have to use those guns to tighten wheel nuts? Over the last 20 years, touching wood, I haven’t had to call out the RAC for a mechanical fault, but every time I have a puncture there is at least one wheel nut that I cannot undo and, consequently, the motoring organisation has to be called. It is embarrassing for a grown man to have to call them for something so trivial, but I guess that's what I’m paying them for.
The call to the RAC gave me a time that a patrolman would be with me within the hour; that would leave me very little spare time once I had travelled to Gillingham. When the patrolman phoned and said he would be with me in 25 minutes, I thought great, plenty of time. Sadly these things never work out quite like that and 50 minutes later I’m still waiting for the man.
When he finally arrived, job done (with the correct tools, of course) in ten minutes and when he tightened the wheel nuts out comes the gun once more!
Desperately short of time and with a skinny wheel on which I’m only supposed to do 50 m.p.h., I find a parking space with ten minutes to spare. I run-walk down to Priestfield and as I enter the ground, gasping, I’m almost pleased that the first person I see is a St John’s Ambulance man, I had a distinct fear I might be in need of his assistance!
Peter Taylor has drafted in the services of Stephen Bywater from Millwall on loan until January to cover last week’s injury to Stuart Nelson, who will be out of action for a couple of months.
The game was a long way short of a spectacle. Gillingham started slowly and should have gone behind on 17 minutes. Ben Nugent was brought down in the box by Leon Legge and the referee had little option but to point to the spot. A woefully poor spot kick by Kieffer Moore allowed Bywater to save easily to his right and earn instant hero status from the Rainham End.
Earlier in the half, Gillingham’s unfortunate start to the season with regards to injuries continued as Josh Hare, making his League debut, took a ball full in the face and was knocked spark out. He was stretchered from the field to be replaced by the returning Matt Fish after just 11 minutes.
Gillingham finally found a foothold in the game following the penalty miss and took the lead on 35 minutes when Joe Martin, using that wand of a left foot, curled a beauty into the top right of the goal leaving the Glovers’ keeper, Chris Weale, grasping thin air from the flighted free kick.
After ten minutes of the second half, Gillingham doubled their lead after Aaron Morris was felled in the box by Nathan Smith, who, incidentally, had also given away the free kick for Gillingham’s opening goal. The ever-reliable Danny Kedwell stepped up, but on this occasion, failed from his first attempt. However, the spot kick was well struck and Weale could only parry the ball back to the striker who scored from the rebound.
The injury jinx surrounding Gillingham at present struck once more, with 13 minutes remaining, when Martin went down, seemingly without a challenge, and also left the field on a stretcher.
The game was comfortably seen out, completing a double victory over the west country side, having knocked them out of the Capital One Cup on Tuesday, earning an attractive home draw against Premiership side, Newcastle United.
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