GILLINGHAM v LUTON TOWN
Gillingham v Luton Town
Gillingham's first league game at the KRBS Priestfield Stadium has seen them beaten comfortably 1-0 by Luton Town. A Sam Parkin header in the third minute proved to be the decider in what was a disappointing afternoon for the Gills.
Mark Stimson made a total of three changes to the side that were knocked out of Carling Cup on Tuesday night. Leigh Mills replaced the injured Garry Richards at the back and in midfield, Adam Miller and Nicky Southall made way for Dennis Oli and Tyrone Berry. With number one keeper Simon Royce still unavailable, Alan Julian continued in goal to make his league debut.
The Gills quickly found themselves a goal down in the third minute when a good run down the left wing from Chris Martin crossed to Sam Parkin, who crisply headed past Alan Julian to give the Hatters the lead. Luton's big and physical defence looked to be causing problems for the Gillingham forwards as chances were few and far between.
Luton were not finished and could have had a second five minutes later when Rossi Jarvis' deflected pass released Chris Martin down the left wing and the striker's clipped cross was met by the unmarked Parkin at the far post, who guided his header past the post.
Gillingham's first chance to level the game came in the 22nd minute when Simeon Jackson fired a shot over the bar after receiving a long pass from the edge of the penalty box. Andrew Crofts also should have levelled when he headed just over from a corner. But Gillingham's best chance of the half fell to Jackson. Tyrone Berry made a good run down the right wing and fed through to Jackson at the near post. However, his effort was blocked on the line. Moments later, Berry again turned provider for McCammon, but he headed wide of the near post.
The second half produced golden opportunities for the Gills to equalise. The 50th minute saw a clean header from McCammon cleared off the line and minutes later, Jackson fired over again from the edge of the 18-yard box after a good pass by Nutter.
On 70 minutes, Stimson replaced Dennis Oli with Gary Mulligan, a move which almost paid off instantly with Gillingham's best chance of the game. A cross from the left by McCammon found Jackson whose first effort was blocked. This led to an almighty goal scramble and Luton managed to stay ahead by the skin of their teeth after efforts from Jackson, Crofts and Berry were all blocked. The 74th minute saw Mark Bentley replaced by Curtis Weston, who looked fairly lively and had a few shots blocked.
However, Luton managed to hold on for their first win of the season and condemned Gillingham to their first league defeat of the season and their second in all competitions this week.
After the game, Mark Stimson was bemused at how his side didn't score today. Speaking to the official website: "We have had decent opportunities to score goals recently and if you don't score goals, you don't win."
The Gills' next game is away at promotion hopefuls Darlington, who picked up a 0-0 draw at Notts County today, next Saturday at the Darlington Arena. The game today has given Mark Stimson's side a reality check and were far from impressive on and off the ball. After last week's fantastic performance at Bournemouth, the Gills had reverted back to the form shown for the majority of last season and were playing against a Luton side that wanted the win more and looked far more organised.
There were a few positives from today: Simon King, as usual, was outstanding at the back and has been worth every penny of his £200,000 transfer from Barnet last year. He is my man of the match for the game and without him; Luton would likely have scored again. Another positive was Tyrone Berry. He looked lively and had a few good runs in the first half and could have set up a few goals. I think that Leigh Mills had a decent game, but it shows how important that back triangle of Royce, Richards and King are if we are going to do well this season.
Bentley looked off the pace and Crofts had his poorest game for a while. The team was too direct and were trying to play through the middle and they didn't use the wings enough. Jackson was easily knocked off the ball and the majority of long balls were aimed at him, instead of McCammon. In all three games this season, we have conceded first and have had to chase the game, but we are struggling to break down teams. When conceding first, teams tend to defend deeper making a direct approach ineffective. Oli and Berry give more attacking options but weren't given the ball enough. Our first two games have been against teams that were relegated along with Gillingham in May, so we have not seen what we are like against League Two opposition. Today was disappointing but, there are still 44 games left and we can still be among the playoff area come the end.
Up the Gills!!
Chris Williamson, Age 16
GILLINGHAM 0-1 LUTON TOWN
First Half
On the first Home game of the Season Gillingham entertained Luton Town who were relegated with the gills last season. With Luton on minus thirty points it was always going to be a very tough game and Luton sent the strong away fans into raptures when goal scorer Sam Parkin headed past Alan Julian on the end of Chris Martins cross after two minutes. Gillingham hit back straight away with Mark McCammon header went just over the bar. It was a very tough game with many yellow cards being shown . Gillingham had a great chance to get a goal when debut winger Tyrone Berry broke into the box but saw his shot saved. Gills pushed Luton but was unable to make a difference .
Second Half
Gillingham started the half off well when McCammon had a header cleared off the line by the Luton defence . Goalkeeper Alan Julian was called upon to make a great fingertip save after Martins shot was heading for the top corner . Gillingham made three subs to try and turn the game around with Curtis Weston loanee from Leeds forcing the Luton Goalkeeper to make some good saves. Simeon Jackson made Luton Goalkeeper Dean Brill make three saves within seconds between each other but Gills still didn't have any luck. Even with Gillingham pushing another man up front and being the stronger team in the later stages of the match they couldn't break down Luton Town . The last kick of the game was a Gillingham free kick with everyone pushing forward even the goalkeeper Alan Julian ,but no one was able to score .The crowd of 5,339 had mixed reaction to the performance from the teams . Although it was a good performance for loanee Leigh Mills who stepped in at Centre back and gave 100% at every attack.
Reported by
Bethany Shearing
Age 9
The Hatters reclaim lost points as Gillingham lose in home league opener
For the visit of Luton Town, manager Mark Stimson was forced to make several changes to his preferred starting XI. There were first starts for Dennis Oli and Tyrone Berry, whilst Alan Julian and Leigh Mills made their league debuts for the Gills.
Luton started very much the brighter in the opening few minutes, and this was obvious when the Hatters took the lead as early as 3 minutes into the game. Sam Parkin headed in past the diving Julian after a cross on the left by Chris Martin.
Gillingham failed to make an instant response, and found that chances were few and far between as they failed to cope with Luton's strong, phyiscal style of play.
Simeon Jackson had a chance on 10 minutes, when a wayward header went his way, but the striker squandered the opportunity as he couldn't control the ball. If only he did, then the Gills most certainly would've been level.
Jackson then had another chance on 22 minutes when he latched onto a long range pass, but the Canadian forward lost his balance and hit his shot way over the crossbar.
There was yet another chance for Simeon Jackson on 40 minutes, when Tyrone Berry drove the ball into the box before picking out Jackson at the near post, whose shot on target was cleared off the line.
Minutes after the second half began Gillingham had another effort cleared off the line, this time it was Mark McCammon, whose headed effort was blocked at the far post.
Gillingham then had their best chances of the game 20 minutes from the end in a chaotic goalmouth scramble. It would've seemed that Stimson's tactics of putting Gary Mulligan on and playing a 4-3-3 formation were about to instantly pay off, with Simeon Jackson, Tyrone Berry and Andrew Crofts all having shots that looked to be going in. But Luton blocked all their efforts and survived the Gillingham onslaught to preserve their lead.
There was nothing else the Gills could really throw at Luton, and despite their best efforts, Gillingham could not avoid defeat against the Hatters, and have therefore begun their season very disappointingly.
Yoosof Farah
Age: 16
