Gillingham surrendered a lead given to them by Tim Dieng’s second half goal in a horror half hour that saw Mark Bonner’s side surrender the SKYBet League Two points as the mood at MEMS Priestfield matched the Medway weather – dull and depressing! 

All looked so good for the manager to celebrate his thirty-nineth birthday in style when Dieng got on the end of Max Clark’s corner but two Harrogate goals in a dozen second half minutes were to ruin the managers day as his side put in a performance that left the manager seething!

“We were disgraceful when we went ahead,” Bonner bemoaned after the game, adding, “There’s a pattern emerging here of a team that goes ahead and then throws games away. It’s happening far too often! I think we have been ahead now in four of our last six games and taken next to nothing!” 

With Storm Bert battering Kent, the first half saw both sides battling to come to terms with the conditions limiting chances at both ends although Referee Russell earned the wrath of the Priestfield crowd after fifteen minutes when Marcus Wyllie was hauled down in the act of shooting with the official one of few watching on who didn’t think the Gills man had been fouled! 

James Daly and Clark both had chances at both ends that failed to trouble the respective keepers as the half petered out in the wind and now torrential rain. 

After the break, the Gills took the lead on 51 minutes as Clark’s deep corner found Dieng at the back post and the Frenchman did the rest firing past James Belshawe. And it could have got even better for the Gills moments later as Elliott Nevitt raced through down the left and crashed a shot against the post from a very tight angle. 

Harrogate themselves hot a post eight minutes later, but with a better result for the visitors as James Daly struck the frame of the Gills goal, but whilst Nevitt’s effort moments before rebounded to safety, Daly’s shot fell to O’Connor to roll home the equaliser. 

The knock knocked the stuffing out of the Gills completely sending the manager into his post-match rage which wasn’t helped twenty minutes from time when Josh March was played through and as Jake Turner advanced, the Harrogate man showed great composure and slotted home. 

The home side huffed and puffed making offensive changes but Belshawe wasn’t really threatened until that is the very end of the game when from a Wyllie ball into the box Josh Andrews couldn’t keep his shot down, and as the ball cleared the Harrogate bar, so did the managers hope of having anything on the football pitch to celebrate on his birthday! 

GILLINGHAM – Turner, Hutton, Max Clark, Masterson, Ehmer, Coleman (Lapslie), Wyllie, Nevitt (Andrews), Euan Williams, (McKenzie), Ogie (Jayden Clarke), Dieng (Nolan) 

Subs – Morris, Gbode 

HARROGATE TOWN – Belshawe, Asare, Moon, Cornelius, Duke-McKenna (Burrell), Daly, Sims, O’Connor, Muldoon, Dooley, March (Nto) 

Subs – Oxley, Falkingham, Folarin, Sutton, Etherington 

REFEREE – Mr. Russell 

Image courtesy of Gillingham FC