Two goals either side of half time sent Gillingham to defeat in the Papa John’s Trophy against Ipswich Town at Priestfield which leaves the qualifying group on a knife edge going into next month’s final round of matches.
All four teams (West Ham U23 and Colchester being the other two) have now won one and lost one of their two games which means when the Hammers come to Priestfield on October 26th, the winners are guaranteed progress.
Steve Evans made several changes from Saturday’s soggy defeat to Wigan with skipper Kyle Dempsey, Alex MacDonald and Vadaine Oliver all sat the game out whilst Jamie Cumming, Danny Lloyd and David Tutonda all on the bench before the weekend trip to Wycombe.
The opening stages were cagey, and the only real chances of note were from distance but neither Stuart O’Keefe’s shot or Joe Piggott’s drive for Ipswich were both off target.
The visitors enjoyed the better of the chances but were indebted to former Gills stopper Tomas Holy for not going behind when the giant keeper pulled off a great save to deny Ollie Lee’s drive and from the resulting corner, Jack Tucker headed a good chance over.
The home side were then made to pay on the stroke of half time as Piggott got on the end of a cross to beat Aaron Chapman and give Ipswich the advantage at the break.
The second half began as quietly as the first, though the Gills fans were left shaking their heads when Charlie Kelman was floored as he tried to connect to John Akinde’s header, but referee Kettle waved the appeals away. The mood of the sparce crowd wasn’t helped moments later as Piggott turned provider for Connor Chaplin – who looked offside – who managed to beat Chapman and net the second.
Holy then made a good stop to deny Lee for a second time and Rhys Bennett only just missed with connecting to a cross before O’Keefe headed wide as the Gills slipped to their second two nil home defeat in three days – the only difference here was at least the faithful who turned up at home base didn’t go home soaked to the skin!
GILLINGHAM – Chapman, Bennett, Tucker, Ehmer (Lintott 60), Akehurst, O’Keefe, McKenzie, Reeves (Lloyd 73), Lee, Kelman, Akinde (Sithole 73).
Subs not used – Cumming, Tutonda, Adshead.
IPSWICH TOWN – Holy, Harper, Woolfenden, El Mizouni, Chaplin (Sizibia 85), Nsiala, Vincent-Young, Edwards (Barry 72), Kenlock, Pigott (Norwood 72), Jackson.
Subs not used – Hladky, Humphreys, Arwin, Yengi.
REFEREE – Mr Trevor Kettle
Attendance: 1,116 (224 Ipswich).
Picture supplied by Gillingham Football Club.