Longwell Green 0 v 2 Gillingham Town – 23/04/14
The Gills were severely depleted for this game, with only a handful of first team regulars in the starting line-up. The up side of the non-availability of players was that there were chances for some of the Reserves players to show their mettle. As such there were starts for Josh Mead and Ryan Schouten and a place on the bench for Elliot Bevis, Joe Smeeton and Jack Baker.
The eagerness of the new players meant that the Gills had a real energy about their play and they created their first chance as early as the 2ndminute. A quick break out of defence saw Ashley Clarke feed the ball to Benjani Ben-Salem and he, in turn, played the ball to Ryan Schouten whose low shot went about a yard wide of the target.
Both teams were struggling to play quality football but chances were still being created, the next falling to Longwell and the Gills had keeper Jamie Beale to thank for a superb save low down by this post. 4 minutes later a shot from outside the area by Nick Thomson drew a similar save out of the Longwell keeper Dan Jackson.
The end to end action continued when Longwell had another good chance but, to the Gills’ relief, the shot was dragged wide of goal. The quick feet of Aaron Rodriguez were causing the Longwell defence problems and with 25 minutes played he was brought down about five yards outside of the area in front of goal. The free kick was taken by Will Agbo and he managed to get his effort round the wall but the ball sailed about a foot wide of the post.
As the novice players began to settle the Gills started to control the game more and they got the goal they deserved on the 33 minute mark. Will Agbo played a great cross from the wing and Ashley Clarke ducked inside a defender to get on to the end of it and his powerful header couldn’t be stopped by the flailing arm of Jackson to give the Gills a 0-1 lead.
The goal also helped the Gill’s players settle and they comfortably held onto their lead till the half time whistle.
The second half saw the Gills continuing to dominate and several chances were created, but all were squandered by poor marksmanship or choosing the wrong option. Longwell rarely troubled the Gills defence now and their chances of holding on to their lead were given a boost with 20 minutes left to play when Longwell’s Liam Crewe was shown a straight red card for kicking out at Josh Mead in an ‘off the ball’ incident.
The game was wrapped up in the last minute of normal time when Aaron Rodriguez went on a run into the right hand side of the area before laying the ball off to Will Agbo. Will sidestepped a defender and then slotted the ball under Jackson to make it 0-2 and give the Gills a much needed win after their two Easter defeats.
Overall this was a great, commanding performance by a depleted team with those players given the chance to step up performing admirably.
Man of the Match was Ryan Schouten.
Next up are Melksham Town who visit Hardings Lane on Tuesday 29thApril.
Gills line-up: Beale, Murray, Hewlett, Mead, Agbo, Harris (J Baker), N Thomson, Clarke, Schouten, Ben Salem, Rodriguez. Unused subs: Bevis, Smeeton.
Terry Lucas
