24Jan

What the…?!

by Gary W

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We all know football throws up endless surprises, but sometimes games just have a certain result written all over them.  Look at the game at Priestfield this weekend.  The Gills sat in 7^th position and faced AFC Wimbledon nine places lower.  The visitors arrived buoyed by a victory in their previous game at Port Vale having previously had six straight defeats and no wins in twelve.  In contrast the Gills, with only one league defeat at home, had gone all season conceding only eight goals and if any game had a bookies style “home banker” feeling to it then it was this one.  Added to this we had Danny Kedwell returning from a broken rib suffered against Stoke to add to his impressive tally of a hundred and sixty starts over the past three and a half years for both of the sides not to mention his seventy nine goals during it.  There was newly signed Jo Kuffour ready to play after a bout of bronchitis and Gavin Tomlin (loaned from Dagenham where he had failed to score in over twenty games for them) starting his first game for the Gills.  This was as straight forward as they come!

It only took four minutes to ram the point home.  If talk before the game largely consisted of Rooney’s departure to Swindon and why Tomlin had been brought to the club when he was incapable of scoring, the latter certainly proved the doubters wrong as he dinked his way to the edge of the area before rifling under their ‘keeper.  With the side 1-0 up at the break things looked good and; when considering the Gills had not lost any game when leading at half time either during the whole of this season, the two preceding it and much of the one before that also (a hundred and fifty seven games in all), the points were as good as in the bag!

Tomlin then put the game further out of reach of the visitors with the moment of the match.  A flick over his head before a neat control and fine through ball for Kuffour to run onto and dispatch under the ‘keeper really helped show what he was about.  And if people still needed convincing then maybe his second to make the score 3-1 cemented his point.  The Gills were sailing and, with less than half of an hour to go, a chance to gain on the automatic places was obvious.

Then something happened, I wasn’t entirely sure what although I think it had something to do with the fact the defence suddenly forgot how to defend!  Wimbledon played, even when losing, like a side that knew they would win – quite impressive for a side with one win in thirteen.  An own goal from Garry Richards, a needless penalty conceded by Matt Lawrence for holding and an eighty-ninth minute winner gave the thousand plus visiting supporters the impossible – a win from the jaws of defeat.  How could the side not see out the game?  How could the defending suddenly collapse under not too great a pressure?  How can a side concede fifty percent of the goals in just one game that took eleven games beforehand?  Perhaps it was one of those games, they happen, but that now means three defeats in a row and is not the form of a promotion searching side.  It will lead to changes I am sure and hopefully ones that won’t disrupt the side further.  Far too many questions were borne out of that wacky result.  I suppose it is best to scratch one’s head, write it off and forget about it and think to ourselves that we could do something similar, starting at Accrington at the weekend!

Posted by Gillingham fan Gary Wade

Follow Gary on Twitter at @Gills_Stats