Gillingham 1 Port Vale 1

Match 88/16/1395 - Saturday, 11th February 2017 - League One

Gillingham (0) 1 Parker 90+5
Port Vale (0) 1 Streete 49
Attendance: 4,942

Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 58/6,175

Match Report

Thankfully Ade Pennock doesn't do bullshit. This was desperately poor and he said so. Somewhat amusingly, in an afternoon which failed dismally to produce a smile out of the gloom, he related that, at the half-time whistle, he joined in with the boos of the crowd!

If reports are to be believed, Pennock has been left the equivalent of Liam Byrne's note as outgoing Chief Secretary to the Treasury, "there is no money". The budget has been used by the previous regime and as the transfer window passed with the incomings being loans or free agents, one has to believe the reports.

The diehards that follow Gillingham away have bore witness to a couple of spirited performances earning draws at promotion seeking Sheffield United and Bradford City, but the home support have seen very little evidence of any improvement.

Whilst Pennock has to make do with what he has at this disposal, he is in my opinion, hamstrung by each team that he puts out is carrying around four players who are not just out of form, they are literally not good enough. They are so devoid of creativity that if they were supplied eggs and had them broken for them, they still couldn't make an omelette.

That said Pennock leaves me head scratching when I see Bradley Dack wasted in that role behind the striker when he is the one player capable of creating something; Cody McDonald's withdrawal leaving Rory Donnelly on the pitch, didn't get that one; and I'm afraid Ryan Jackson should not make the starting eleven.

Port Vale started and finished the afternoon one point adrift of Gillingham. If I had been one of the 120-odd Vale supporters making their way back to Burslem tonight I would have been truly gutted that they were not going home with all three points. If Gillingham have only one "get out of jail card" a season then they have played it.

The referee had indicated that there would be five minutes of time added and my stopwatch hit the 50th minute of the half when new signing Josh Parker met Jay Emmanuel-Thomas' corner with a powerful header to rescue an undeserved point.

After a first half in which the two sides performance was only matched by the greyness of the weather, Port Vale went ahead four minutes into the second period when a corner from Callum Guy was headed home at the far post by Remi Street. Deji Oshilaja may lay claim to being fouled as he attempted to jump with Streete, but it was weak defending.

A Donnelly header after 76 minutes barely stretched Leonardo Fasan in the Vale goal, but it was a rare effort on target.

Hopefully, the loan signings of Bournemouth's Joe Quigley and Harry Cornick will add some quality, first they need to be fit.