Street 0 v 2 Gillingham Town – 23/11/13
At the start of this game the Gills sat at the top of the League table and Street were not far below in fourth place, so this was definitely a ‘six pointer’ and had all the hallmarks of being a meeting between two high quality teams.
Luckily, the Gills only had a couple of absentees for this game; Mallick Jammeh was still out through injury, as was Aaron Rodriguez. Phil Ormrod returned to the starting line-up and James Hatcher returned to a place on the bench.
The pitch was in a good condition but had a lot of sand on it, especially one of the goalmouths which was very soft.
The Gills got off to a good start and should have scored in the 2ndminute when a Jon Vance corner fell to Phil Ormrod at the back post, but his shot was blocked by a defender.
Apart from this the opening stages were quite even with both midfields dominating play and both sides struggling to create quality chances. The next chance fell to Street in the 8thminute when a shot from outside the area was comfortably tipped over the bar by Gills’ keeper, Jamie Beale. It was Street who had the next chance too and it came about as a result of some intelligent play resulting in the ball reaching an unmarked player in the right hand side of the area, but he blasted his shot over the bar.
After this the game settled down again and the next chance didn’t come till the 26thminute when a Jon Vance corner was dropped by Nathan Whatley, the Street keeper. The ball was smashed into the back of the net but the Referee disallowed the goal for an alleged foul on the keeper, a decision which was hotly disputed by players and fans alike.
The disallowed goal seemed to lift the Gills’ players and just 4 minutes later Ben Thomson played a ball into Steve Smith who was on the edge of the area with his back to goal. Steve managed to turn and get a shot off but his marker just managed to take the sting out of the effort meaning Whatley could save easily.
With 10 minutes of the half left disaster nearly struck for the Gills when Jamie Beale went down on one knee to collect a weak shot. Just before it reached him the ball spun up off a divot in the soft ground and flew over his shoulder towards the goal. Fortunately though Jamie reacted quickly and turned round to scoop the ball away before it crossed the line.
The last chance of the half fell to the Gills and this was a shot by Phil Ormrod, but he didn’t connect with the ball properly and it caused Whatley no problems. So the first half ended with the score still standing at 0-0 with the game so far being a very tight and close affair and, despite not many chances being created, plenty of quality football on show.
The second half carried on in the same vein with Street coming close as early as the 3rdminute when Mark Salter connected well with a corner, but his header flew just over the bar.
2 minutes later the Gills opened the scoring when a goalmouth scramble involving some great play by Phil Ormrod and several close range shots ended with the ball falling to Ben Thomson on the edge of the six yard box. Ben made no mistake and slotted his shot wide of Whatley and into the net to give the Gills a 0-1 lead.
Following the goal the Gills started to control the game more and the longer it went on the stronger they looked. With 68 minutes played Ryan Murray put a ball into the area from the right wing which Steve Smith got onto the end of and, despite getting some real power into his header, the effort was straight at Whatley who denied the Gills’ striker.
On the 73 minute mark Street came close to scoring when Tom Hurley took a shot from inside the area but, despite not being under pressure, he put his effort over the bar. 5 minutes later Street were left ruing the missed opportunity when the Gills scored a second goal. An Aidan Chainey corner found its way back out to him and when he put the ball back into the danger area Jack Vallis rose above everybody to head the ball down into the goal.
The last chance of the game fell to Harry Baker when, with just 4 minutes left, he took a shot from distance that, with Whatley rooted to the spot, sailed just the wrong side of the post.
So the game ended with another good victory and a clean sheet for the Gills in a game which put some distance between them and the other teams chasing for top spot. The win lifted the Gills to the top of the table and keeps up the pressure on the other teams around them who have games in hand.
Man of the Match was Nick Thomson.
Next up are Radstock, who we meet for the second time in a week, on Tuesday at Hardings Lane in the Les Phillips Cup.
Gills line-up: Beale, Murray, N Thomson, Vallis, Vance (Chainey 61), Compton, Baker, Clarke, Smith, Ormrod , B Thomson. Unused subs: Thompson, Hatcher, Foster.
