Gillingham Town 2 v 0 Hengrove Athletic – 28/09/13
The Gills went into this game without Lee Gale who has left the Club in a move to Wincanton Town. Harry Baker was also missing due to injury but the rest of the squad were available. The Gills started with a 4-5-1 formation with Ben Thomson as a lone striker being joined by Aaron Rodriguez and Ryan Murray when the play dictated.
From the start it was clear that the players were struggling with the new system and, as a result, the Gills weren’t playing their usual style of free flowing football. Hengrove Athletic seemed to be struggling too so the opening stages of the game were a dour affair with neither team playing any quality football or creating any clear chances.
The Gills changed their formation to 4-4-2 with Ryan Murray moving to right back replacing Nick Thomson who partnered his brother up front. Despite this it wasn’t till 3 minutes before the break that the first good chance was created and this fell to Hengrove, but the shot from just outside the 6 yard box was blocked at the last minute by James Hatcher throwing himself in front of the ball.
So at half time the score was 0-0 and it was probably the worst 45 minutes of football the Gills had played in quite some time.
The second half started a little better with the Gills slowly but surely getting into the game more. Their first good chance came from an Aaron Rodriguez corner which the Hengrove defence failed to clear but Jack Vallis’ overhead kick saw the ball fly over the bar.
The game came to life just past the hour mark when the Hengrove keeper, Liam Macfarlane, was shown a red card for something he said to the Assistant Referee. 2 minutes later Jack Vallis looked like he had scored with a close range header but the effort struck a Hengrove defender on the line. The man advantage didn’t last long though as Ben Thomson was shown a straight red card for stamping in the 67thminute.
By now the Gills were still not playing great football but were dominating the game and creating good chances. The stand-in keeper was doing a great job and in the 71stminute he deflected a Nick Thomson effort onto the post. Then 4 minutes later a Jon Vance free kick was headed towards goal by Jack Vallis but the keeper pulled off a great one handed point blank save. Unfortunately for him the ball then fell at the feet of Jack who smashed the ball into the net to give the Gills a 1-0 lead.
The goal seemed to relax the Gills and for the first time they started to play with a bit of confidence. With 10 minutes left on the clock Jon Vance cleverly drew a foul from a defender just outside the box and this was taken by Gary Bowles who simply blasted the ball into the back of the net to score his first ever goal for the Club and give the Gills a 2-0 lead.
The Gills comfortably saw out the rest of the game to come away with a 2-0 victory and three valuable points that keeps them in the running at the top of the table.
Man of the Match was Jack Vallis.
Gills line-up: Beale, Murray, Hatcher (Compton 70), Vallis, Vance, Bowles, Chainey (Cox 64), Clarke (Thompson 70), B Thomson, N Thomson, Rodriguez. Unused subs: Smeeton, Foster.
