Action and Reaction as Grimsby Town Damage the Gillingham Promotion Push

Action

Gillingham’s quest for promotion glory from League Two was dealt a serious blow yesterday, as the Gills lost 3-0 to relegation strugglers Grimsby Town at Blundell Park.

Jean-Louis Akpra Akpro’s strike on 33 minutes gave the home side a 1-0 lead, after following up a shot from Nick Hegarty which had struck the post.

Up until that moment, it had been all Gillingham, with the hosts offering little in attack.

Grimsby started better after the interval, and made it a double on 57 minutes. Hegarty received the ball in the area and placed it past Gills’ keeper Simon Royce.

The away side went on steaming on in desperate pursuit of an equaliser, but it wasn’t to be, as things only got worse.

A miserable day for Gillingham got even worse as Barry Conlan swept the ball home from close range in ther closing stages of the game.

Reaction

Gillingham manager Mark Stimson was expectant that his side’s unbeaten run wouldn’t last too long, saying that his players simply weren’t capable of keeping it up all the way to the end of the season.

He said: “I expected to get something from the game because of the run of form we’re in but the players are only humans.

“There was no way the run was going to last until the end of the season. There were a few people who might have got excited and carried away with it but second top versus second bottom can always be a bit of a banana skin.”

However, Stimmo went on to praise his team’s performance in their last few games, and was in an optimistic mood for the remaining seven matches.

The Gills’ boss added: “The team has been absolutely phenomenal for the last eight games and you have to give credit to them. They weren’t anywhere near what they’ve been like in the last eight games but that’s football.

“They don’t go out there to not put up a real good performance and it just wasn’t to be and we’ll get over it.

“There are seven games to go and if we can get the place rocking like Grimsby did then I’m sure we will have a really enjoyable last seven games.”

quotes: www.kentonline.co.uk