Gillingham (0) 2 McDonald 59, Egan 61
Chesterfield (1) 3 Clucas 22, Legge (o.g.) 54, Ryan 69
Att. 6,841
Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 52/3,564
Match Report
Gillingham did their level best to enter into the spirit of the festive season with a ticket offer of just £10 for adults, the players throwing gifts to the crowd and a Christmas card on the turnstiles for everybody that wished to take one. Their generosity was extended, via a fragile defensive performance and a last kick of the match miss from Cody McDonald, to the gift of three points to the visitors who returned to Derbyshire fully deserving of their victory.
The afternoon culminated with a less than jolly 6,500 leaving Priestfield in a downcast mood, but not before venting their spleen with manager Peter Taylor bearing the brunt of the criticism, some of which was of an extremely hostile nature.
Taylor has to make his own decisions of course, that is what he is paid for. The few that offended Taylor are a small minority and some people are able to form their opinions from good judgement, some were even decent players in their day (that doesn’t apply to me!). I’ve a problem with Max Ehmer, at this moment in time. Taylor has brought him to the club on loan from Queens Park Rangers and no doubt has an obligation to play him but, in my humble opinion, his inclusion has been at considerable expense. John Egan, has been Gillingham’s best player this season and will, almost without question with no other obvious contender, be crowned Player of the Year in May. He has earned these accolades as a central defender, so why waste that talent playing him at right back to accommodate Ehmer. The German has an unfortunate body language that makes his style look casual, in fact it looks lazy and when he ducked under Jimmy Ryan’s shot for Chesterfield’s winning goal, then his commitment to the cause could also be brought into question.
Taylor’s team selection has irritated me continually this season, but just occasionally a player produces a performance or lack of one that makes you think perhaps he has it right and I’ve been wrong all along. Bradley Dack, is my for instance. I like Dack’s energy; he’s good on the ball and has an eye for a goal, so why has he sat on the bench so many times this season? Perhaps his performance in this game explains Taylor’s thinking. Whilst Dack was his usual effervescent self, he failed to influence the game and was eventually substituted when Gillingham were chasing the game from two down. In fairness, his lack of influence wasn’t singular in a midfield that created very little from the centre of the park.
Gillingham, you would think, would have been buoyed by the sight of Chesterfield’s team sheet. Eoin Doyle, 19 goals this season, was declared unfit and only took his place on the bench because Paul Cook’s squad was so thin in numbers that he was among just four substitutes.
The home side could have gone behind in the opening five minutes when a header from Armand Gnanduillet was cleared from the line by Brennan Dickenson with Stuart Nelson a helpless bystander.
The visitor’s admirable ambition, given their problematic team selection, was finally rewarded after 22 minutes. Ryan swept the ball to Sam Clucas in acres of space wide on the left wing, the full back opted to try his luck from 20 yards with an angled shot that found the far corner, appearing to take a deflection off Egan, who had attempted to close down the initial space given.
Taylor opted to make early second half substitutions, Dack and Dickenson were replaced by McDonald and Jermain McGlashen, but within a minute of their appearance, the visitors doubled their lead. Tendayi Darikwa, who had looked mightily impressive going forward from his right back position, drove a hard, low cross towards the far post in the direction of Gnanduillet and was left to celebrate as Leon Legge inadvertently turned the ball into his own net for the third time this season. Gillingham have now conceded six own goals, even three would seem unlucky, six appears careless.
How often do we witness a poor Gillingham performance when a big crowd has assembled on the back of a ticket offer, almost always is the answer. But at least the home support were treated to a spirited comeback from their favourites. Five minutes after Chesterfield’s second, Doug Loft hoisted a pinpoint cross to the edge of the six yard box from where McDonald was able to steer a relatively unchallenged header past Tommy Lee.
Two minutes later and the home crowd were in full voice as Loft sent in another cross, this time to the far angle of the six yard box, to be met with a diving header from Egan into the bottom corner.
With half-an-hour remaining and the momentum entirely with the home side, Gillingham should have been expected to complete the comeback with a winning goal. But the culminating moment to 15 exhilarating minutes fell to Chesterfield. A ball into the box was miscontrolled; a half-hearted clearance found the dropping ball met with a sweet volley from Ryan, and with Ehmer ducking underneath the ball, it was to nestle in the corner.
Gillingham showed no sign of retrieving the situation in the remaining 20 minutes, until in the last seconds of four added minutes, a long clearance from Nelson was headed on by Danny Kedwell and it seemed a foregone conclusion that McDonald would save the day, the ball inexplicably at the time, went wide of the mark but later it was shown that it was the fingertips of Lee that had preserved the points for the Spireites.
The festive period is underway; Gillingham have exercised the spirit of giving. We can only hope that on Boxing Day they can deliver a knock-out punch.
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