Accrington 1 Gillingham 0
Simeon Jackson takes
on Philip Edwards during Gillingham's FA Cup defeat at
Accrington Stanley. Picture: Barry Goodwin
By Luke Cawdell
Gillingham crashed out of the FA
Cup after a late defeat at Accrington in the
third round on Tuesday night.
John Miles' 81st-minute
strike sealed the
deserved, win for their League 2 hosts and denied Gills a home tie
with Premier League Fulham on Saturday.
Gillingham were put under plenty of
pressure in the opening half as the hosts dominated the early
stages. That pattern set the tone for the rest of the match
as Mark Stimson's side never got a grip on the game.
Stimson was disappointed to see a potential
fourth round tie against Fulham disappear.
He said: “The performance was a mixed bag. In
the first half we were under the cosh a bit but we weathered that
and came out second half and looked better.
“We had a fantastic chance through Mark
Bentley and you would probably wish that was your striker.
“The game looked like it was going to go to a
replay but it didn’t and we are hugely disappointed because the
reward in the next tie is massive.
“I’m hugely disappointed like those fans who
travelled up in their numbers. They were a credit to their football
club.”
Accrington had several early
chances but keeper Alan Julian saw the majority go wide. Sean
McConville, Robert Grant and Michael Symes all went close.
The best of those
early chance fell to
Grant after 12 minutes. He was found inside the six-yard box by
Dean Winnard but a deflection from Tom Wynter helped the ball go
just past the post.
A rare opening at the other end
fell to Chris Palmer but he shot the ball over while Josh Gowling also headed a corner
well wide.
Gillingham’s hopes weren’t
helped when Curtis Weston hobbled off injured after 34
minutes. Weston had been recalled to the
team after Saturday’s
defeat at Swindon where he had started on the bench.
Gills were thankful to go in level at
the break but could have seized the initiative at the start of the
second half. Stuart Lewis fed Mark Bentley but his shot was saved
by Dean Bouzanis and the follow-up from Simeon Jackson was
blocked.
Julian kept the
visitors in the tie with a good save when he saved well from Michael
Symes with 17 minutes remaining and with 13 minutes
left, Stimson introduced
Andy Barcham for Palmer after a long spell out
injured.
The change had little effect,
however, and the breakthrough for the hosts came with
nine minutes left when Miles smashed home from the edge of the
box.
Gillingham: Julian, Fuller, Nutter,
Wynter, Gowling, Lewis, Bentley, Palmer (Barcham 77mins), Weston
(Maher 34mins), Oli (McCammon 66mins), Jackson, Subs not used:
Locke, Yussuff, Rooney, Payne.
Accrington: Bouzanis, Kempson,
Procter, Miles, Grant, Edwards, Ryan, Winnard, McConville (Kee
73mins), Symes, Lees. Subs not used: Dunbavin, Turner, Mullin.
Attendance: 1,322.
Tuesday, January 19 2010