Colchester United 1 Gillingham 2

Match 50/14/1159 - Boxing Day, 26th December 2014 - League One

Colchester United (0) 1 Szmodics 51
Gillingham (2) 2 Martin 25, Dack 34
Att. 4,544

Entrance: £16 Senior
Programme: £3
Mileage: 162/3,726

Match Report

Somewhere in the bowels of your digital television menu an obscure movie channel will be showing The Great Escape. Steve McQueen will, once again, clear the fence on a motor cycle and Dickie Attenborough will be there masterminding the plot. Gillingham enacted their own version of the storyline on Boxing Day at the Weston Homes Community Stadium with Stuart Nelson cast in the role of hero with the unlikely compatriot of the linesman who carried the red and orange flag.

Having rode their luck in the opening minutes, Gillingham grew into the game and by half-time had established a two goal lead before being pegged back early in the second period, but going on to survive an onslaught on their goal that resembled that of another feature film, The Alamo.

Christmas has brought with it a blast of winter and a bitter wind that cut through however many layers of clothing with which you chose to protect yourself.

Colchester United’s out-of-town stadium retains the irritatingly expensive problem of parking, of which £6 for a space with a 15 minute walk has to be considered excessive. The parking fee was at least offset with a senior ticket £6 below the match price for adults and the welcome sight of a hot cup of tea for a princely quid!

Just five minutes had elapsed when Gavin Massey skipped past the challenge of John Egan, thankfully restored to the centre of the defence, before unleashing a shot the came back off the underside of the bar before being hoofed to safety.

After 25 minutes in which the visitors had been principally on the back foot, Gillingham fashioned an opening goal. Cody McDonald was set free down the right to cross in the general direction of the centre of the goal. Colchester’s Kasper Gorkss’ header did nothing more than loop the ball into the path of an unmarked Joe Martin whose clinical volley found the bottom corner. Quite how the Gillingham full back found so much space will be a matter of much consternation to the United management team.

One became two ten minutes later with once again McDonald the provider. A combination of passes between McDonald and Bradley opened the Colchester defence and although McDonald lost his footing after the first pass he got back up to dink a cross to the near post for Dack to convert.

It would be amiss to mention that, having slightly criticised Dack following the last home game, the youngster showed was Gillingham are missing with his usual energetic display.
Massey, who was the livewire of the home attack, brought a good save from Nelson, turning over the bar a well hit shot just prior to the break.

Gillingham were forced into a half-time substitution when Dack made way for Amine Linganzi and with it any control in the midfield was lost.

Linganzi proved to be particularly ineffective in the second half and I hope, for the lad’s sake that he is one of the players that Peter Taylor has earmarked to be moved out of Priestfield in the January transfer window. A combination of injury and poor form has not allowed Gillingham fans to see any of the expected potential and in this 45 minutes where he just tracked the ball without getting anywhere near it, his confidence looks absolutely shot.

Colchester quickly halved the deficit when ex-Gill Sean Clohessy crossed to the near post where a combination of Gillingham debutant Harry Lennon and the home side’s Sammie Szmodics forced the ball over the line setting up a siege that few of the 680 travelling fans would believe could be fought off.

Freddie Sears had the ball in the Gillingham net within 10 minutes, but the celebration was cut short with the sight of the red and yellow flag before the ever-dangerous Massey brought another good save from Nelson.

In the midst of the second half one-way traffic, McDonald appeared to have restored Gillingham’s two goal cushion but Trevor Kettle ruled out the goal for what could only have been the lightest of a push by the striker.

Nelson produced a blinding low, diving save to deny Sears before the game entered into the four minutes of added time. With less than one of those minutes remaining, Sears managed to steer a header over the line for what appeared to be a heart breaking equaliser before attention was,once again drawn to the red and yellow flag raised high to the joy of the travelling support.

The Great Escape was complete. League leaders Bristol City are next up in Sunday’s Priestfield fixture, now somewhere I should be able to find Mission Impossible.