Just driven the whole way home thoroughly depressed as I did not know the other scores and feared the worst: fortunately it seems we live to fight another day, although we have to get at least a point on Monday.
We should have got at least a point today but completely blew the game by giving away two terrible goals in the last fifteen minutes. I can't fault the effort of the players, nor the quality, of which I thought there was plenty, particularly in the second half. However, we did not manage the later stages of the game well at all and John Mac has to take a fair share of the blame for this.
First half was not great. Gillingham had the majority of the pressure and chances, although in patches we actually played the better football and had a couple of opportunities of our own. Gills were very direct: balls into the channels for MacDonald to run on to and hoofs up to the human blancmange, Akinfenwa. Defensively we badly missed Jennings, with Gillingham having far too much space and time on the edge of our 18 yard box and Power looking decidely uncomfortable in the holding role. The back four, however, did ok.
In the second half we came out with a much more positive attitude and dominated from the off. I see Cassidy has taken another bashing above, but he actually played well and was unlucky today. He had one glancing effort somehow cleared off the line by a Gills defender, after a great burst by Ash Taylor, and was unlucky with an angled drive after a great run. However, had the same chances fallen to Lowey, we probably would have won. I also found it utterly bizarre that Cassidy and Stockton remained on the pitch in the dying stages, yet Lowe was subbed and replaced by Arthurworrey who ended the game as a makshift centre forward: it seems that Sparky's conspiracy theory that Cassidy can't even be substituted is correct.
With twenty minutes to go Gillingham brought on Kedwell who gave them a second wind, and at this point I think we should have replaced Koumas, who could barely run by this stage. As it transpired, it was Koumas's failure to track their wide man with ten minutes remaining that left the Gills player completely unchallenged on the byline and able to pick out Dack for ther opening goal: shocking defending and avoidable had we made a change. Hindsight is 20-20, and it is admirable that McMahon was still hoping to win the game in the latter stages, but we should have settled for a point and made ourselves more solid in the last quarter of an hour.
McMahon's away record is truly appalling and I think there are definite problems with the way we set up away from home: we give too many opportunities to the opposition and don't seem capable of digging out draws from games that have been evenly contested.
Fonners, who otherwise had an excellent game, then topped the afternoon off by stupidly coming up for a corner in injury time. We lost possession, Gillingham broke and MacDonald scored: that goal could be crucial in the final reckoning, as it is possible goal difference could be the difference between fifth and fourth bottom. Someone, whether MacMahon, Garnett or Lowe, should have told him to get back on his line.
There were a lot of decent individual displays, but man of the match was between Taylor and Pennington.