Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls and welcome once again to krbs Priestfield, for this afternoon's bank holiday match with our neighbours from just across the water, Southend United. I trust you are all enjoying the Easter festivities and haven't overdone the chocolates as we will need you all in fine voice again if we are to get the result we all want at 5 o'clock.

I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome all those supporters that took advantage of our friends for a fiver and kids for a quid offers this afternoon, I hope you enjoy your day and look forward to seeing you all for next week's match with Brighton with the ticket discounts will once again be in operation.

It's little over a week since our last league outing here at Priestfield, a match in which I believe we saw the very best of Gillingham Football Club, a resilient, battling, never-say-die performance, played out in an electric atmosphere, generated by our superb support. I was hugely disappointed with the performance of referee Phil Crossley who I felt made a number of poor decisions in the game, not least of all the first booking for Dennis Oli which, having studied the footage, still appears to be a clear penalty. Dennis maintains he felt clear contact from the player so how Mr Crossley could award a booking for simulation is well beyond me.

To make matters worse, Dennis was given a second yellow card soon after for a challenge on Dons left-back Dean Lewington, who I can't help but feel, made the tackle look far worse than it actually was. The two incidents clearly did not add up to a sending-off and I made a point of speaking to the referee about it early last week but, as you would expect, he did not wish to change his opinion.

I was also surprised and a little dismayed by the aggressive manner in which Paul Ince's side approached the game. This was clearly an issue for Dons Chairman Pete Winkleman too; he was livid with the performance and spent some considerable time remonstrating with the Assistant Manager in the dressing room after the game.

Putting aside the more negative aspects of the match, I was immensely proud of our players as you clapped them off at the final whistle. The energy and attitude of our display, despite being reduced to ten men, sums up the character and passion that Mark Stimson and his coaching staff have instilled into the squad. It's a shame that we don't have a few more matches left this season as I feel sure that the current squad would make a very real impact on this division.

Finally, I cannot draw a line under last weekend's events without a word of praise for our excellent supporters. The volume of noise you generated for sustained periods of the match, more than compensated for our player disadvantage on the field. Today is the first of four huge matches for the club, and your backing can spur us on to the results that we all hope for over the coming weeks.

Up The Gills
Paul D P Scally
Chairman