Substitute John Akinde saw Gillingham, who had lost their last 5 games without scoring, defeat Crewe Alexandra last night at the Alexandra Stadium.
Manager David Artell made one change from Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Ipswich Town with Daniel Powell replacing Owen Dale on the right-wing with Dale dropping down to the bench. Former Alex striker Vadaine Oliver would start for the visitors.
The opening chance of the game came in the 15th minute with Oliver heading the ball straight at Will Jaaskelainen before Charlie Kirk would fire wide after a counter-attack saw Tom Lowery get down the Alex right to deliver a first-time cross.
Gillingham hit the crossbar direct from a Jordan Graham corner on 25 minutes before Powell hit the post 7 minutes later. The Alex would bring another save from on-loan QPR Joe Lumley with a Kirk effort before Powell, Mikael Mandron and Callum Ainley would all have efforts on the goal without scoring.
Mandron would hit the post 7 minutes after the break from a Pickering cross before Akinde would head home the opening goal just before the hour-mark. Ainley would drag an effort wide from a Pickering pass minutes after the goal before substitute Oli Finney had an effort blocked late on.
The next games for the Alex sees us travel to Bolton Wanderers on Saturday in the 1st Round of the FA Cup before hosting Shrewsbury Town in the final EFL Trophy group game next Tuesday.
What can we take out of this game?
Like Saturday, it was another frustrating game that feels like a shot below the belt. I’m not concerned about the team going forward as long as there are some changes across the two cup games coming up (allowing some of the players some much-needed rest – both physically and potentially mentally).
Alexandra Stadium
League 1
3/11/2020 8:00 pm
Attendance: 0
Referee: Bobby Madley
| Crewe Alexandra | Gillingham | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Akinde | |||||||
| Jaaskelainen | Lumley | ||||||
| Ng | Jackson | ||||||
| Beckles | Tucker | ||||||
| Offord | Ogilvie | ||||||
| Pickering | Medley | ||||||
| Ainley | 75 | Graham | |||||
| Wintle | Dempsey | ||||||
| Lowery | 88 | McKenzie | |||||
| Powell | 69 | O'Connor | 90 | ||||
| Mandron | Coyle | 55 | |||||
| Kirk | Oliver | 71 | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Richards | Walsh | ||||||
| Porter | Willock | 90 | |||||
| Finney | 75 | Samuel | 71 | ||||
| Zanzala | 88 | Akinde | 55 | ||||
| Dale | 69 | Woods | |||||
| Sass-Davies | Maghoma | ||||||
| Murphy | Drysdale | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 21 | Goal attempts | 7 |
| 4 | On Target | 3 |
| 8 | Corners | 3 |
| 13 | Fouls | 10 |
| 3 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 74 | % | 26 |