Gillingham 2 Rochdale 0

Match 45/15/1250 - Tuesday, 24th November 2015 - League One

Gillingham (1) 2 Dack 7, Oshilaja 80
Rochdale (0) 0
Attendance: 5,088

Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 58/3,204

Match Report

One of life's (and football's) little coincidences. My 2,000th game was the 2009 Play-off Semi-Final at Rochdale; fast forward six-and-a-half years and 500 games and my 2,500th sees Gillingham and Rochdale as the competing teams once again.

In 2009, the first leg was hard fought with, as I wrote at the time, barely a fag paper between the teams. The game ended goalless setting up a winner takes all second leg at Priestfield, which was equally tight but with Gillingham ultimately advancing to Wembley courtesy of two Simeon Jackson goals. In 2015, another hard fought encounter ensued as Gillingham sought to put behind them a really bad day out at Coventry on Saturday.

Gillingham have a formidable home record this season and reverses on the road have been safely put to bed each time they have returned to Priestfield. Back in September, after consecutive defeats at Colchester and Barnsley, they bounced back with a 5-1 thrashing of Fleetwood. An unfortunate defeat at Walsall, but a truly awful cup exit at Stevenage was also reversed with a comfortable 3-1 win over Bury. Saturday's top-of-the-table clash at the Ricoh saw four first half goals conceded in just 10 minutes before recovering some pride in the second half of a 4-1 defeat. Their ability to bounce back from setbacks is really admirable.

Gillingham engineered an early confidence boost with a superbly crafted goal after just seven minutes. Ryan Jackson broke up an attack from the visitors with a robust challenge before setting "Paddy" Osadebe on his way with a surge down the right side. His pass into Dominic Samuel was laid off by the loan striker into the path of Bradley Dack, whose clinical strike found the bottom corner for his tenth goal of the season.

Chances for either side became as rare as rocking horse poo as both midfields cancelled each other out. Football fans have fairly long memories and last season's pantomime villain, Andy Cannon, was re-installed, especially after feeling the weight of a heavy, but deemed fair, challenge from Deji Oshilaja. Last season's fixture had seen the Rochdale midfielder writhing on the ground following seemingly each challenge. But, it was Cannon that brought the first save of the match out of Stuart Nelson with a driven shot.

If the home side had slightly edged the first period, the second belonged to the Dale. Gillingham's ball retention left an awful lot to be desired, but as much as Rochdale pressed for a goal, they proved fairly punchless in the final third. Nelson made a smart save low to his right to deny substitute Tom Hooper, but overall was barely troubled, although the 70 or so travelling supporters may have felt their possession of the ball deserved some reward.

Those supporters knew they would be going home empty handed when, 10 minutes from time, from a corner a John Egan header was only parried by the keeper back to Oshilaja who nodded the ball in from close range.

It would be lovely to think that I would still be penning this blog when I get to 3,000 games. If I was to continue at the present rate then I would be 71 years of age reaching that milestone. So, mark it in your diary, in April 2022, Gillingham will be playing Rochdale!