On a balmy Essex evening, Andy Hessenthaler's second spell as Gillingham Manager began with a defeat at Braintree Town's Cressing Road ground.
Hessy used the match as an opportunity to run the rule over several trialists who lined up alongside the nucleus of the Priestfield first team squad.
Most notable among Hessenthaler's hopefuls was former Gills favourite Danny Spiller who showed promise playing on the left of midfield in the first 45 minutes. While Lewis Young, brother of Aston Villa's Ashley Young, played on the right wing in the second half.
Braintree gave their visitors an early scare in the third minute as left-back Mark Jones advanced into the Gills half and tested Julian with a low shot from distance that caught the Gills custodian wrong-footed. Fortunately he recovered his composure to make the save low to his left hand side.
A neat one-two between Danny Spiller and Andy Barcham sent the latter clear on the left of goal on 11 minutes, Barcham let fly with a powerful strike that flashed over the bar and cleared the low terrace behind the goal.
Five minutes later the hosts took the leading after an embarrassing mix up in the Gills defence. Keeper Alan Julian called for the ball then watched in horror as trialist Tony Sinclair headed past him towards an unguarded net. The ball rolled against Julian's right hand upright presenting Jamie Guy with a simple tap-in to put Braintree in front.
Despite that set-back the Gills looked the stronger of the two sides and dictated the play for the remainder of the half. Spiller blistered the paint on the crossbar with a fierce drive on 24 minutes after good build up play by Barcham before the lively forward set up Danny Jackman to flash a low effort wide of MacDonald's far post.
Gillingham's best effort of the half came seven minutes before the break as Jack Payne found himself in space and chanced his arm with a dipping volley, from fully 35 yards, that had MacDonald back-pedalling to claw out from under his crossbar. But for all their efforts the visitors could not find an equaliser before the half time interval.
HT 0-1
With both sides making wholesale changes it took some time for the game to settle at the start of the second half. Mark Bentley went close to levelling on 52 minutes, rising above the home defence to meet Chris Palmer's corner only to see his header cleared off the line by Bailey-Dennis.
Three minutes later the visitors found the net with a cool free-kick from Luke Rooney. Rooney himself had been fouled on the edge of the box and stepped up to curl his finish into the far corner, a healthy deflection off the wall leaving Braintree keeper Ollie Sanders rooted to the spot.
Within minutes Braintree were back in front though as Sean Marks shrugged off the attentions of Connor Essam and the right-back Romuald Boco before slotting his finish under Julian and into the back of the net.
The goal gave the hosts renewed confidence and only some brave keeping by Julian prevented Braintree adding to their total. On the hour mark the Gills keeper stood up to deny Reece Harris while Chris Palmer headed Kenny Davis header, from the resulting corner, off the line.
Then, 15 minutes from time Julian was called into action again, pulling off a rapid double save to deny first Martin Touhy and then Sean Marks and taking a painful kick to the hand for his trouble.
Late long range strikes from Chris Palmer and Luke Rooney scarcely troubled Sanders in the Braintree goal as Gillingham toiled in vain to find an equaliser. Hessy's men have an early opportunity to get back to winning ways when they visit Bromley on Saturday, kick-off at Hayes Lane is at 3.00pm.
Gillingham 1st Half: Alan Julian, Barry Fuller, Josh Gowling, Tony Sinclair, Danny Jackman, Curtis Weston, Jack Payne, Andy Barcham, Danny Spiller, Dennis Oli, Serge Makofo.
Braintree 1st Half: Nathan MacDonald, Ryan Doyle, Mark Jones, Matt Paine, Brad Thomas, Nicky Symons, Sam Lechmere, Brad Quinton, Mike Power, Jamie Guy, James Hawes.
Gillingham 2nd Half: Alan Julian, Romuald Boco, Mark Bentley, Connor Essam, John Nutter, Lewis Young, Luke Rooney, Kevin Maher, Chris Palmer, Sam Gargan, Fola Onibuje
Braintree 2nd Half: Ollie Sanders, Phil Starkey, Michael Alalie, Adam Bailey-Dennis, Sam Holloway, Robbie Martin, Kenny Davis, Reece Harris, Tom Brown, Sean Marks, Martin Touhy
