Gillingham Town 9 v 0 Radstock Town – 26/11/13
The Gills played Radstock Town away in the league exactly a week ago and won 2-0, but this was a Les Phillips Cup game and the Gills’ record in cups this season has been far from ideal.
There were quite a few absentees for this game; with Jamie Beale, Mallick Jammeh, Aaron Rodriguez, James Hatcher, Ryan Murray and Jon Vance all absent for various reasons. As a result there was a debut in goal for Tom Townsend and there were starts for Dan Sansom and Joe Smeeton. There was a place on the bench for Jack Baker where he was joined by First Team regulars Steve Smith, Ashley Clarke and Nick Compton.
The Gills got off to a great start and were 1-0 up after just 5 minutes. A clearance by a defender was blocked by Ben Thomson and the ball fell to Phil Ormrod who placed his shot just inside the right post to give Radstock keeper Chris Wright no chance.
The Gills nearly doubled their lead 5 minutes later when a shot from inside the area by Ben Thomson deflected up off the leg of a defender and dropped just the wrong side of the bar. However, just 2 minutes after this the Gills got their second when Nick Thomson put a dangerous ball into the area that Wright could only half clear straight onto the head of Dan Cox, who simply headed it into the back of the net to make it 2-0.
The Gills were running riot now and it was 3-0 after 17 minutes when Ben Thomson played a ball into Harry Baker well inside the area and Harry turned his marker before slotting his shot out of the reach of Wright but just inside the post.
Just a minute later the Gills made it 4-0 when a fierce shot by Nick Thomson from outside the area took a slight deflection off his brother Ben before bulging the back of the net.
The Gills were in total control of the game now but despite this Radstock were still trying really hard to get back into the game. Despite their best efforts though they just simply didn’t have the capability to threaten the Gills’ goal. The Gills dominance resulted in good chances for Danny Thompson and Harry Baker but these were both wasted.
Just past the half hour mark saw Radstock’s first attempt on goal when one of their players found himself with the ball just outside the six yard box but even this was wasted when he skied his effort.
With 36 minutes played the score went to 5-0 when Ben Thomson drove into the area before laying the ball off to Dan Cox who in turn played it on to Harry Baker who slotted home from close range. 2 minutes later Harry Baker was through on goal when he was inadvertently tripped by Radstock defender Mark Hibbard and the Referee really had no option other than to compound Radstock’s misery by showing him a red card.
There was still time for a couple more chances for the Gills but, again, these were wasted through poor finishing. So at half time the Gills were leading 5-0 and Radstock were down to ten men.
The second half carried on where the first left off when, in the very first minute, Phil Ormrod had a close range header at goal that drew a fantastic one handed save out of Radstock keeper Wright. The pressure had to tell though and in the 48thminute Ben Thomson got the Gills’ sixth goal when his driven shot from just inside the area found the net via the leg of a defender.
Ben nearly scored again 3 minutes later but Radstock had their keeper to thank again when he blocked the effort with his legs. The onslaught couldn’t be stopped though and the Gills made it 7-0 just past the hour mark when Danny Thompson played a ball along the edge of the area to Ashley Clarke whose low driven shot went into the bottom left hand corner of the goal.
Just after this Wright pulled off a great double save when he first blocked a close range shot by Steve Smith and then immediately parried an effort by Danny Thompson. Despite their keeper’s best efforts Radstock seemed determined to make matters worse for themselves when, on the 73 minute mark, they had a second player red carded for lashing out at Danny Thompson off the ball.
The scoreline went to 8-0 on the 79 minute mark when a Danny Thompson cross was met by the head of Steve Smith whose effort found the back of the net and it was Steve who scored the Gills ninth and final goal in the 87thminute, this time heading home a Dan Cox cross.
So the game finished with a 9-0 thrashing of Radstock and it was a thoroughly professional performance by a depleted team with the players called up proving the quality of the Gills squad.
Man of the Match was Ben Thomson.
On Saturday the Gills are at home to Cadbury Heath who earlier this season inflicted one of the Gills three defeats.
Gills line-up: Townsend, Smeeton, N Thomson (J Baker 57), Vallis, Chainey, Sansom, Cox, H Baker (Clarke 45), B Thomson (Smith 55), Ormrod Thompson. Unused subs: Foster. Compton
Terry Lucas
