Andy and I decided on a change of scenery for Tuesday night and drove down to Gillingham (Dorset) to watch Gillingham Town take on Calne. Earlier in the day Andy had received an email at work from Paul to say that he would be at Gillingham for a new ground visit - think Paul was surprised to find out that we would be there too! After a quick drink in the bar we met up with him in the stand. The reason for heading to the stand was that there was a steady drizzle throughout the evening which turned into heavier rain every now and then. The pitch was quite muddy and in the far left corner it looked like someone had tried to plough the pitch.
Calne are a division above Gillingham and according to Paul either play like Brazil (good) or play like Southampton (bad). They certainly started like Brazil - after 3 minutes they took the lead and after 5 minutes they were 2.0 up! The first goal saw some good passing and movement down the right hand side followed by a cross to the centre where an unmarked striker tapped the ball past the keeper. The second goal came from a freekick. The ball was played high into the penalty area and one of the Calne players headed the ball straight to an unmarked team mate who passed the ball into the net. Gillingham managed a couple of long distance efforts but didn't really trouble the Calne goal.
As Calne pushed forward for more goals, only the Gillingham goalkeeper kept them in the game with some excellent saves, especially from one-on-one situations where he kept on his feet and made himself big. A third goal finally came on 29 minutes thanks to a kind deflection that took the ball away from the defender who was trying to clear it, allowing the Calne striker to place a low shot past the keeper. Two minutes later a fourth goal was disallowed for an obvious handball in the buildup.
It seemed like Calne were going to run up a cricket score but against the run of play, Gillingham managed to pull a goal back. The ball was played into the area and the Gillingham player following it in managed to hold off the Calne defender accompanying him long enough to poke the ball in from close range. Calne continued to press and on 37 minutes had 3 chances to score. Another one on one situation created by an intelligent pass behind the defence but the keeper managed to save the first shot, the second shot and then clear the ball away before a third shot could come in. He was lucky that both shots were played directly at him but made his own luck by forcing the Calne player to take a shot rather than dive early and allow a chip.
After half time it was a different story as the Southampton version of Calne Town took to the pitch. The manager made a couple of substitutions early in the half which did not go down too well with the travelling fans in the stand. Gillingham were making all the running and on 60 minutes forced the Calne keeper to make a double save following a quick free kick. The Calne keeper had to contend with a couple of difficult shots to handle in the wet conditions and Gillingham were able to exploit the difficult condition by forcing him to parry the ball rather than catch it.
On 72 minutes Gillingham made the score 2.3 with a fluke goal. The ball was loose in the Calne penalty area and one of their players kicked it up the pitch, only to see the ball rebound back off a Gillingham player and fly over the keeper and in. This really brought Gillingham to life and 2 minutes later they almost equalised but the Calne keeper came out quickly to smother the shot.
On 82 minutes Gillingham were awarded a free kick just outside the penalty area to the left of the goal. The freekick was direct and you wouldn't have seen a better effort from Ronaldo, Giggs or Gasgoigne. The ball was flighted over the wall, over the keeper's hand off the crossbar and into the top right corner. Superb! The Calne supporters around us seemed to be in shock at this point and were worried that the momentum was now with Gillingham. On Saturday they had conceded 4 goals against Bristol Manor Farm after being in the lead and ended up drawing 4 all. However they need not have worried as the Brazillian Calne Town appeared and on 84 minutes they retook the lead. A freekick from just inside their own half was floated into the area, headed down and a close range shot beat the Gillingham keeper at his near post.
Gillingham tried to get another equaliser and made the most of Calne's poor attempts to keep the ball in the corners with some breakaway attacks but ran out of time. An exciting match to watch despite the poor weather conditions.
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