Gillingham 3 Southend United 3

Match 22/17/1472 - Saturday, 26th August 2017 - League One

Gillingham (0) 3 Eaves 56,63,80
Southend United (1) 3 Leonard 20, Kightly 65, Cox 73
Attendance: 5,339

Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3.00
Mileage: 58/1,420

Match Report

When one door closes another opens is a phrase generally used in terms of positivity. After a less than inspiring start to the season that had collected a single point but failed to register a goal, the saving grace was that Gillingham were looking reasonably secure at the back with only two conceded in three league games. So did Adrian Pennock consciously go looking for a goal, if he did he succeeded but at the cost of leaving the back door open.

After an opening ten minutes in which Gillingham looked bright, the next 35 were amongst the worst I've witnessed in many a year. Southend were downright average but a defence, that looked like a rubber dinghy in a force eight gale and a midfield that was overrun, made them look like Real Madrid.

The farcical situation with Stuart Nelson was put into perspective when Tomas Holy dropped a cross, allowing Ryan Leonard to hook the ball over his head and into the unguarded goal. People who lept to their feet in indignation that the keeper had been fouled were deluding themselves, Holy had the ball, dropped the ball, it was rubbish goalkeeping which makes the exiling of Nelson to training with the kids bewildering.

Pennock last season cited the poison in the dressing room but it seems he is still attempting to purge the remains with Nelson and, for this game, Josh Wright left out of the squad and seemingly on his way out of the club. Have Gillingham got the quality to sacrifice these players, Pennock thinks so, not many of the fans I know care to agree.

Roundly booed at half-time, credit where its due, the Gills showed a spirit in the second period that wouldn’t have been apparent six months ago.

With Tom Eaves in the side play is inevitably going to be one-dimensional, but if the service is right then the lofty striker will cause defences a problem.

After 54 minutes, Mark Byrne delivered a cross to the far post and the head of Eaves, whose looping header found its way into the bottom corner. How shit must you be, we’ve scored a goal, rang out from the Rainham End.

Glory be, nine minutes later they had two to celebrate. This time a cross from Connor Ogilvie was met with a stooping header from Eaves to nestle the ball into the same corner.

Unfortunately the back line had learnt no lessons from the first half and, almost immediately, Southend were back on terms, Michael Kightly managing to muscle his way into a shooting position to place a shot out of the reach of Holy.

Southend retook the lead after 73 minutes when a shot from the edge of the box hit the crossbar for Simon Cox to convert the rebound at the second attempt.

Once again, credit to Gillingham, heads could have gone down but they persevered and got their reward with 11 minutes remaining when they were handed a penalty when Byrne was brought down.

Eaves did his best to squander his hat-trick opportunity but the poorly struck kick was only parried by Southend goalkeeper Mark Oxley with the spin taking the ball towards the post, Eaves followed up to score.

A point, yes; but I come to the conclusion that cracks are only being papered over.