Walsall 3 Gillingham 2

Match 38/15/1243 - Saturday, 31st October 2015 - League One

Walsall (2) 3 Morris 37, Lalkovic 38, Demetriou 90
Gillingham (2) 2 McDonald 12, Dack 32 (pen)
Attendance: 6,663

Entrance: £14.50 Senior
Programme: £3
Mileage: 380/2,629

Match Report

If I had been watching this game as a neutral, I would have walked away thinking, "what a great game of football". I wasn't a neutral, my team lost, and I walked away thinking "what a great game of football."

If Mystic Meg had trundled down to William Hill’s back in August and asked for odds on Walsall and Gillingham contesting first and second places in the table come the last day of October, then, even if they recognised the power of her crystal ball they would have been scratching their heads to give her long enough odds.

To say that Walsall, whether in their previous home of Fellows Park or their present residence at the Bescott Stadium, is not a happy hunting ground for Gillingham is something of an understatement. No wins there since 1992 and the previous victory to that was back in 1985 and no Gillingham team has scored more than once since 1990 and they still didn’t win that day having scored three times!

Personally, I hadn’t even seen a decent game in my four or five visits; at least that changed this visit.

The opening exchanges highlighted, for the mass of nearly 700 Gillingham supporters particularly, the return to form of Bradley Dack and his continual want to be at the centre of the action. His early free kick was fired over and when he won a tussle deep in his own half his pass to Doug Loft led to the opening goal after 12 minutes. Loft then threaded a beautifully weighted pass into the path of Cody McDonald, who under pressure from a retreating defender slid the ball past the advancing goalkeeper, Neil Etheridge, and into the bottom corner.

After 31 minutes, Dack wriggled his way along the bye-line until he drew a clumsy challenge from Paul Downing to which referee Darren Drysdale pointed to the spot. Dack, brimful of confidence, sent Etheridge to his right and the ball to his left to bring a few misguided Easy, Easy chants from some of the Gillingham faithful (young people who hadn’t endured years of misery at Walsall, it might be guessed).

My own thoughts were, get through to half-time and this game is as good as won. But in the space of 90 seconds, my hopes were dashed and the easy chants were rammed firmly back down throats as two defensive errors wiped out the advantage.

Stuart Nelson might question himself as a shot from 25 yards from Kieron Morris found the bottom corner between the goalkeeper and his near post after 36 minutes and Walsall were level almost directly from the restart. A cross from George Evans was over hit and as the ball landed at the feet of Ryan Jackson, the defender dithered for the moment needed for Milan Lalkovic to poke out a foot and direct the ball past Nelson.

If the first half was pulsating with goals, the second was the same without. Neither team was willing to give an inch and the tackles were hard and not always fair as Mr Drysdale started flourishing his yellow card with regularity.

Both teams had periods of dominance but it appeared that Gillingham were finishing the strongest, before in the first minute of time added, Walsall's Rico Henry created some space on the left hand bye-line to deliver a cross that looped into the air via a deflection towards the centre of the goal. Jordan Cook attempted a overhead kick that only found its way to the angle of the six yard box from where Jason Demetriou volleyed home.

It is always said that what goes around, comes around and having benefitted from late goals in their previous three games it was Gillingham's turn to take one on the chin.

And so it was the "we are top of the league" chant passed from one end of the Bescott to the other. That the baton was able to be passed is a credit to both clubs as was the match, a wonderful advertisement for League One.

Walsall 0 Gillingham 0

Match 13/09/765 - Saturday, 29th August 2009 - League One

Walsall (0) 0
Gillingham (0) 0
Att. 3,331

Entrance: £20
Programme: £2.50
Mileage: 375/2,231

Match Report

Bank Holiday traffic made a two and three-quarter hour journey a frustrating hour longer and this was the precursor to a match that was both tedious and frustrating.

Mark Stimson rested Jack Payne to the bench to accommodate new signing Danny Jackman with Mark McCammon retaining his place as the target man.


The game started in bright sunshine although a brisk breeze took the edge off the temperature and it was the visitors who started the brightest creating an early effort on goal from McCammon that hit the back of the net only to be disallowed seemingly for handball. This was the second time this season that I’ve suffered the embarrassment of still celebrating whilst the opposition were taking the resulting free kick!

Gillingham continued to have the best of the play for the first 20 minutes with further chances being created for McCammon, Barcham and Jackson but the finishing on each occasion left a lot to be desired.

Barry Fuller was having his own personal battle with Steve Jones that was fairly attritional from the outset. Jones has a few tricks and a lot of pace, but our captain was standing his ground and matching him stride for stride. Dennis Oli picked up an early booking for a foul on Jones, before the Walsall winger appeared to shove Fuller into the hoardings behind the goal line whereby the full back was off the field for some time before limping back into the action.

Meanwhile Gillingham were still creating the best of the half chances but McCammon, Oli and Andy Barcham found Walsall custodian Clayton Ince equal to their efforts.

The half hadn’t been the greatest of fare but the visitors had enjoyed the best of the possession and chances and optimism had risen that this particular bogey ground might be laid to rest on this occasion.

The second half started with Mark Stimson being forced into a precautionary substitution. Oli received another ticking off from referee Carl Evans and the manager made the decision to withdraw his player before he suffered a worse fate. Within ten minutes a second substitution was forced upon the visitors as Fuller finally limped away from the action this time following his blocking of a shot from Troy Deeley. The skipper’s armband was passed onto new boy Jackman.

By now the game was dying on its feet with very little action happening anywhere near either goalmouth. With 20 minutes remaining the best action of the second half was played out. Chris Palmer, who had replaced Oli, played in Simeon Jackson who raced to the edge of the penalty area and let fly with a rasping drive that cannoned off Ince’s chest. The ball rebounded straight back to Jackson, whose stooping header was safely gathered by the thankful keeper. This was to be the last meaningful action as the game that had fairly meandered from the first whistle petered out to an eventual close. Five minutes extra time was played at the end of the first half, four in the second, 99 minutes might just have been 199, it was one of those days when a goal was never going to happen.

The Birmingham area is blessed with some iconic stadiums. There is Villa Park, the Hawthorns, Molineux and then there is the Bescot. I’m sure when Walsall left Fellows Park in 1990 the art of building stands with cantilever roofs was available. Unfortunately for visitors to the stadium, that concept completely passed the designer by. Consequently wherever you sit your vision is impeded by supporting pillars. We tried three different viewing positions before settling on our obstructed view, the one saving grace being that we could at least choose which pillar we sat behind. Since I was last at the Bescot they have built a new two-tiered stand behind the goal that houses the majority of the home support. The structure is quite imposing, dwarfing the rest of the stands and pillar free!

The two success stories of the day to report are that Gillingham have arrested the slide in what has to be considered a decent point and they were the better of two poor sides. Secondly, the Bank Holiday traffic had significantly dispersed for a hold up free ride home, we can be grateful for small mercies.