Gillingham 2 Scunthorpe United 1

Match 34/15/1239 - Tuesday, 20th October 2015 - League One

Gillingham (0) 2 Dickenson 59, Lennon 90+1
Scunthorpe United (0) 1 Laird 53
Attendance: 4,823

Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 56/2,053

Match Report

A 92nd minute defeat for the home town football club, 216 miles south would have barely registered on a day when the catastrophic loss of 900 jobs at the Indian-owned Tata steelworks had occupied the minds of the people of Scunthorpe. A message of support was fitting and appeciated with applause from the 150 or so hardy Iron supporters that had made the journey. Heavy job losses have been suffered by the Medway towns in the past with the closure of the dockyard in Chatham, which makes it all the more embarrassing that some took to social media to poke fun rather than offer sympathy.

In London or Manchester, where their football clubs are offered such wealth through television, such an event would barely cause a ripple on the company accounts, but in towns such as Scunthorpe, and indeed Gillingham, where each person through the gate is a cherished supporter rather than a irritating customer, the effect on the club's resource will be felt for a long time to come.

This will effect, probably quadruple the 900 people that are about to lose their jobs, from the suppliers through the local shops to the tea ladies that watered the workforce. Many would support Scunthorpe United and many will no longer be able to afford their matchday ticket.

Of course, none of this would happen in China, whose dumping of cheap steel has caused the value to slump. We need to protect our industries and their communities and whilst we are looking at the bigger picture, we would also protect the likes of Scunthorpe United, for whom the Government and the Football Association will show little interest.

In truth, this was a game which Gillingham didn’t deserve the three points, but nobody can deny the spirit shown after going a goal down and reduced to ten men with the sending-off of Josh Wright with nine minutes remaining.

Scunthorpe, who came into the match on the back of three successive victories, were the better side in a first half largely devoid of chances and any great excitement. The much-travelled Gary McSheffrey fired marginally wide off the far post with a curling shot and went closer still when he stretched Stuart Nelson with a free kick from the right hand side.

Gillingham’s only chance of a poor half fell to Jake Hessenthaler who headed a Bradley Dack free kick wide.

Justin Edinburgh brought Brennan Dickenson and Jermaine McGlashen into the action at the start of the second half to inject a bit of life into the lacklustre performance. Their introduction and the start of the second half were delayed for a couple of minutes as the officials wrestled with a malfunctioning indicator board, which all seemed a bit pedantic.

When the game finally restarted there was, at least, a bit more intent from both sides.

After eight minutes of the second half, Scunthorpe opened the scoring. A right wing cross from Scott Wiseman cleared the aerial efforts of both attackers and defenders at the near post and as the ball bounced, left back Scott Laird fired in with a meaty volley that gave Nelson no chance.

Gillingham responded within five minutes when a Dack corner was sent to the far post from where Dickenson climbed the highest to head into the bottom corner.

Referee Lee Swaby, an inexperienced official, was already taking rather too much of centre stage when with nine minutes remaining he reduced the home side to 10 men after deeming that Wright’s challenge had been dangerous. It seemed a very harsh decision.

Sensing their opportunity, the Iron poured forward in search of a winner but solid defending reduced them to a single pot shot that was well over and with the clock having entered the time added on, a free kick from the left sailed all the way to the far post and, initially it was thought straight into the net, but Harry Lennon was credited with a touch.

There remained time for a final head in hands moment when an instinctive save from Stuart Nelson from a close range Murray Wallace header following a corner. For the Scunthorpe supporters, faced with the long journey home, it must have seemed the inevitable conclusion to a very bad day. One can only hope that the town recovers from this major setback thus allowing their local club to prosper.