Gillingham 2 Southend United 1

Match 98/16/1405 - Saturday, 25th February 2017 - League One

Gillingham (2) 2 Wright 41 (pen),45
Southend United (0) 1 Ranger 83
Attendance: 6,542

Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3.00
Mileage: 58/6,874

Match Report

A little bit of faith was restored with this spirited performance against a Southend United side that began and ended the afternoon in the play-off places. Despite going into the break two goals up with the visitors reduced to 10 men following the sending-off of ex-Gillingham loanee Ryan Inniss, the lack of confidence that was borne out of a winless run of 11 games allowed Southend to mount a concerted effort to salvage the game.

Under Ade Pennock, Gillingham have saved their better performances for those against the higher placed teams in the league but a first win has proved elusive for eight games.

The task appeared uphill from the naming of the starting eleven that lacked Bradley Dack, who picked up an injury in training, Deji Oshilaja, Chris Herd, Bradley Garmston and Mark Byrne. Into the side came new signing Zesh Rehman and Joe Quigley. Rehman had a sound debut at centre back doing nothing flashy but honest defending, getting his head on the ball and clearing to safety whilst Quigley did what was required of a tall target man occupying defenders.

Jermaine McGlashan, who departed Gillingham in the summer, initially received a warm welcome but a shameful dive in the opening minutes turned the cheers to jeers in an instant.

Inniss picked up his first yellow following a heavy challenge on Rory Donnelly that ended the Irish striker's afternoon being replaced by Josh Parker.

Gillingham opened the scoring with five minutes of the half remaining when they were awarded a penalty following a foul on Cody McDonald. Josh Wright send the Southend goalkeeper, Ted Smith the wrong way to convert the spot kick.

With five minutes of added time to play, Gillingham doubled their advantage in the 48th minute of the half when McDonald surged into the box and crossed from the left hand bye-line to give Wright a tap-in for his second goal.

In the 50th minute of the half, Inniss brought down Parker and after a long consultation with his linesman the referee showed the towering central defender a second yellow and the directions to the dressing room. Time was finally called on the first half after 54 minutes.

Southend's manager Phil Brown introduced Nile Ranger as a second half substitution and his direct running gave the Gillingham defence a constant problem.

Gillingham's defensive line fell deeper and deeper, as is their habit, and at times it was quite desperate but they were hanging on with Stuart Nelson not being called upon to make a serious save. Sadly the elusive clean sheet proved just that once more when a cross from the right by Theo Robinson found the head of Ranger who scored from close range.

It was a nervous finale and the cheers at the finish were as much relief as joyous but Pennock's reign finally has a victory under its belt, hallelujah to that.