Winterbourne Utd 0 v 2 Gillingham Town – 05/10/13
Once again the Gills had a number of players absent, namely Harry Baker (injury), Jon Vance (injury) and Nick Compton (work). There were nearly a few more missing due to traffic congestion following an accident on the M4 near Bristol, with the last of the players turning up at 2:40 and as a result the kick off was delayed till 3:15.
The game was the first to be played on Winterbourne’s new artificial 3G pitch and this caused the players a few issues as it takes a bit of getting used to, but the perfect surface also allowed the Gills to play some passing football. As a result they dominated from the start and the first chance came after just 3 minutes when Ben Thomson was through on goal, but the chance was wasted when he miscontrolled the ball. In the very next minute Gary Bowles went close when he headed a corner against the bar.
With a quarter of an hour played Aaron Rodriguez played a great through ball which allowed Ryan Murray to drive into the right hand side of the area but Ryan’s shot was from a tight angle and his shot was blocked by the legs of the Winterbourne keeper, Tom Sheppard. Immediately following this Winterbourne created their first chance of the game but the shot from just outside the area went wide of goal.
In the very next minute Aaron Rodriguez used his quick feet to create an opening in a crowded area and put a shot towards goal, but once again Sheppard kept his team in it with a fantastic one handed reaction save. The Winterbourne goal was under a lot of pressure now and Sheppard made another good save 3 minutes later when Ben Thomson headed a corner towards goal and he tipped the ball over the bar.
Two more corners followed and the first dropped into a crowded area and the subsequent scramble saw a close range effort from Nick Thomson cleared off the line. The second was met by an unmarked Gary Bowles and his powerful header went just over the bar.
The pressure had to tell and in the 22nd minute a long ball saw Ben Thomson through on goal and when he was pushed off the ball inside the area the Referee awarded the penalty. Ryan Murray stepped up to convert the spot kick and sent the keeper the wrong way to give the Gills a deserved 0-1 lead.
The Gills continued to completely dominate the game and 2 minutes later a Gary Bowles free kick went fractionally over the bar and Gary came close again just past the half hour mark when he came very close to tapping in a Phil Ormrod free kick. Just after this Aaron Rodriguez saw his shot across the face of goal beat Sheppard but go agonisingly just wide of the post.
Just before half time it looked like the Gills were going to be made to pay for missed chances when Winterbourne nearly scored. A very quick break out of defence saw the ball whipped across the area and Ryan Murray needed to make a great last minute block to prevent the equaliser. This was the last good chance of a half which saw the Gills dominate proceedings but having only scored the one goal left all the fans wondering if the missed chances would ultimately prove costly.
The second half got underway in exactly the same style when, in the first minute, some good play by Aaron Rodriguez set up Ben Thomson, but his shot sailed about a foot over the bar. 5 minutes later Ben was put through again, this time by Phil Ormrod, but this effort went just wide of goal into the side netting.
However, after this Winterbourne showed how good they could be and were the better team for the next 20 minutes, but still didn’t really create any good chances as the Gills defence held firm. Manager Adrian Foster made a couple of changes to try and get the Gills back on top with Danny Thompson and Dan Cox replacing Aaron Rodriguez and Aidan Chainey respectively.
The change seemed to work as it was Danny Thompson who created the Gills second goal in the 74th minute when he pulled the ball back to Ben Thomson who despatched the ball into the back of the net to give the Gills a 0-2 lead. After this the Gills relaxed and got back to their normal style of play which allowed them to retain possession and control the game till the final whistle.
Man of the Match was Ryan Murray.
Saturday sees the Gills return to Hardings Lane when they take on Ilfracombe Town.
Gills line-up: Beale, Murray, Hatcher, Vallis, Chainey (Cox 64), Bowles, N Thomson, Clarke, Ormrod (Smeeton 75), B Thomson, Rodriguez (Thompson 62). Unused sub: Foster.
Terry Lucas
