Gillingham (0) 2 Norris 49, Dack 65
Peterborough United (1) 1 Oztumer 25
Attendance: 6,449
Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 56/4,713
Match Report
A meeting of the Division’s great entertainers, 105 league goals between them this season, produced a cracking match with Peterborough dominating the first half and Gillingham staging a thrilling second half comeback.
Once again the star of the show from a Gillingham perspective was Bradley Dack and the club’s fans are counting down the days until the end of the transfer window with the hope that their prized asset is going to see the season out at Priestfield and with him the prospect of promotion.
Rumours abound of bids from Crystal Palace, Reading, Leeds et.al., but only one bid has been made public, that of a £1 million from Bristol City that was turned down out-of-hand. How much is Dack actually worth? Every player has a price, what sort of offer could not be refused?
Perhaps a benchmark might be taken from Connor Washington’s move from today’s opponents Peterborough to Queens Park Rangers for a rumoured £2.5 million. Washington, is a year older at 23, has 10 goals to his credit this season and overall scored 27 goals from 81 appearances following his move from Newport County. In comparison, Dack has scored 12 goals from midfield this term and 25 goals from 100 appearances overall. Those figures alone surely undervalues Bristol City’s offer by a long way.
Dack’s value to Gillingham on the pitch is a whole lot more than just goals. His presence is everywhere on the pitch. He takes virtually all the free kicks and corners, his number of assists must rank alongside his goals total and when he is not bombing forward, he is tracking back diligently.
Gillingham’s impressive campaign so far has not been built on a single player, but Bradley Dack’s contribution has been very significant. I, for one, have serious reservations that Gillingham’s challenge can be kept on track without him. But if an offer of £2.5 million was to drop on Paul Scally’s mat, could it be refused?
Gillingham made one change to their line-up, Rory Donnelly pulling up in the warm-up and being replaced by Luke Norris.
The first half very much belonged to Peterborough. Shaquille Coulthirst, on loan from Tottenham, brought an early save out of Stuart Nelson and another effort narrowly missed at the far post. The attempts on goal from the Posh continued to rain in as, frankly, they were running rings around a ragged Gillingham before taking a deserved lead after 20 minutes with a brilliantly engineered free kick. A cluster of players jostled for space to the left of the box as Jon Taylor stood over the ball 20 yards from goal. Instead of a cross into that area he played a simple ball to Coulthirst positioned in the wall who played it back into the path of Erhut Otzumer, who picked his spot into the bottom right hand corner with unerring accuracy.
Otzumer, quite possibly the smallest player in the Football League, was long admired in non-league circles at Dulwich Hamlet before his move to Peterborough, a club with a rich recent history of unearthing talent from the lower leagues.
Peterborough continued to dominate the half and created further chances for Coulthirst and a couple for Martin Samuelson, none of which missed the target by much.
As the half neared its end, Gillingham at least found a bit of momentum and were unlucky when John Egan struck the right hand post with a shot from a difficult angle.
Edinburgh made two half-time changes, replacing Jake Hessenthaler, who had a particularly poor 45 minutes, and Bradley Garmston with Doug Loft and Brennan Dickenson. Dickenson went on to play as well as at any time during the season but it was the club skipper Loft who carried the most influence.
A different Gillingham emerged from the tunnel for the second half with a renewed sense of purpose. Dominic Samuel went close within a couple of minutes of the restart before the home side equalised after 49 minutes. Dack, who else, threaded an inch perfect 40 yard pass down a narrow channel on the right wing into the path of Samuel, whose cross found an unmarked Luke Norris who finished with a shot into the bottom corner despite the efforts of a defender to clear from the line.
Gillingham now had their tails up and when the ball fell to Egan in the box following a corner, the central defender's shot came back off the bar.
Just before the hour mark, the visiting manager made the surprising decision to withdraw Oztumer, a choice that was welcomed by the home support around me. But his replaced Adil Nabi served notice of his arrival when his first chance struck the bar.
Peterborough gave notice that they were far from out of this game when a couple more chances fell to Coulthirst, one went wide and the other needed a save from Nelson.
After 65 minutes, Gillingham were in front. Loft put the ball into the box to Samuel whose backheel was into the path of Dack. A challenge from Chris Forrester at first appeared to have stopped the midfielder, but the defender stumbled on the ball, setting it up perfectly for Dack to drive a shot into the centre of the goal.
To their credit, Peterborough refused to lie down and the game had a thrilling ebb and flow. Forrester went close to making amends 15 minutes from time when his long range shot hit a post and the visitors were really cursing their luck when shots from Baldwin and Maddison went sailing over the bar.
Gillingham laid a lie to the previous two games when they successfully, almost comfortably, saw out the five minutes of time added to record their eleventh victory in 14 games at Fortress Priestfield, one that took them back to the summit of League One.
January can be a pretty dark, dank and unwelcoming month and Gillingham fans will be glad to see the back of it with their prized asset still wearing their blue shirt.
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