Thanks to Danny Stokes for sending us his Gilingham Fan Report.
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When we play a side who have a hideous away record, United fans are usually putting their life savings on away wins. A scepticism formed and usually backed up ever since that game in 1991.
United lined up with their strongest available eleven: Westwood; Raven, Livesey, Murphy, Aranalde; Anyinsah, Bridge-Wilkinson, Lumsdon, Hackney; Garner, Graham. Riding the pine were Haworth, Arnison, McDermott, Gall and Carlton.
In autumnal sunshine, Gillingham won the toss and elected to defend the Warwick Road End, forcing Westwood into the sunbathed Waterworks. The game started very slowly and thanks to fussy officiating, never developed any rhythm. With Gillingham's tendency to slow the game down and take their time over throw-ins, it slowed things to a standstill, which appeared to be a big part of their plan.
With the first sustained period of pressure, United took the lead. A corner from the right was swung in by MBW and Simon Royce was blocked off by Efe Sodje and the ball thumped into Ian Cox's chest and rolled into the vacant goal. No Gillingham player appeared keen to clear the ball which was rolling into their net, while Garner and Graham were barreling in looking for the free goal.
United almost doubled their lead moments after when Efe Sodje smashed a back-pass beyond a stranded Simon Royce and only just wide of the goal. Sodje is famous for his bandana with the slogan 'Against All Odds', and I've often wondered if it should continue 'Against All Odds, I'm A Professional Footballer Despite Having No Talent Whatsoever', which would be far more accurate.
He and his equally inept central defensive partners Ian Cox and Simon King took it in turns to foul Joe Garner with the hope of getting a reaction from him, Sodje taking the first go at him after only seven seconds. The moment which summed him up came towards half-time when challenging Danny Graham for a header, he swung his elbow and had he made contact, Graham's head would've probably landed in Brampton.
Gillingham had a goal disallowed after Chris Dickson climbed all over Aranalde. If you're being absolutely honest, then Westwood made a big error in coming this far for the ball which he never looked likely to claim.
The visitors, it must be said, didn't look like a side putting it in. There was one moment in the first half when Delroy Facey chased a ball into the corner and he made no attempt to keep it in play, despite being no further than a yard from it at any time. Had we scored a second goal before half-time, then they may have folded in the same manner they did last season.
That was by and large the first half summed up. At half time, I didn't think that either side could be as bad again in the second half, so that heartened me.
However, the second half started at the same sluggish tempo with more fussy officiating which just infuriated me further. It only took United ten seconds of playing at full speed to score a second goal, a quick throw-in from Aranalde found Hackney in space and his shot was deflected past Simon Royce to give us an unassailable 2-0 lead.
Gillingham came into the game a bit more, which was more down to United switching off rather than them actually being any good. Westwood needed to make a save, but it was from a distant shot which was straight at him.
United had one further chance to extend their lead - Danny Graham's volley was palmed onto the cross-bar by Simon Royce. Had it gone in, then it would've made the scoreline more reflective of the balance of play.
As it was, 2-0 was a perfectly comfortable lead. It certainly wasn't a vintage performance as United were far from their best for long periods of the game.
The game showed how crucial that Marc Bridge-Wilkinson is to our game - when he has an off day, we don't look a great side. When he's ticking along nicely, like he was against Millwall, we look a very strong side.
Danny Stokes
