A hatrick of penalties within 9 minutes from Josh Wright turned this game on its head when, two goals down with just 17 minutes remaining, Gillingham’s hopes of a third win in four games looked to have gone.

Scunthorpe took an 4th minute lead through Paddy Madden, and doubled their advantage in the 73rd when Stuart Nelson was deceived by Harry Toffolo’s skimming shot from distance.  Wright’s three penalties came in the 77th, 82nd and 85th minutes; the first when Bradley Dack was bundled over by Stephen Dawson, the second when Dawson was adjudged to have handled, then lastly when Wright himself was clipped by Murray Wallace.

Desperate to build on two victories in their last three matches, Gillingham retained their attacking 3-5-2 formation, but in the early stages, this allowed Scunthorpe space to pass into the wide areas.  The opening goal came from left wingback Deji Oshilaja being drawn forward by Jordan Clarke, who rolled a pass into the space behind Oshilaja.  Kevin van Veen slid a low cross into the middle of the area, where Paddy Madden hit a composed side-foot finish past Stuart Nelson.

A poor pass across the face of the area by Josh Wright put Zesh Rehman in trouble as Madden ran in at pace, but this time his shot rolled past the left post.

Gillingham created a couple of chances through Cody McDonald’s industry.  First McDonald pressurised Murray Wallace into conceding a soft corner, from which Bradley Dack’s cross was glanced goalwards by Max Ehmer, but Stephen Dawson was well positioned by the right upright to hook clear.

Then, Oshilaja’s long ball over the top of David Mirfin allowed McDonald to race into the Scunthorpe penalty box, but Mirfin took advantage of an awkward bounce to put in a recovering tackle and clear the danger.

Both Ehmer and Chris Herd went into the referee’s notebook as the home crowd shouted their derision towards the officials, but Gillingham were just starting to show the attitude that had earned the recent wins.  Rehman played a ball over the top of Wallace for Joe Quigley to run into the area.  Quigley turned back past Wallace, but his left foot shot was deflected wide off Mirfin.

Scunthorpe, playing a virtual front 3, were having some joy around the edge of the Gillingham box.  Clarke’s diagonal cross allowed Wallace to glance a header into the path of Madden, but with the angle narrowing, Nelson was quickly off his line to smother the forward’s shot.

In the closing moments of the half, Jamie Ness’ ball from midfield caused hesitation from Herd, allowing Tom Hopper to burst into the area, but Herd recovered quickly to put in a sliding tackle and deny a shot on goal.  Herd appeared to re-injure his knee in the challenge, which would force his replacement at half-time, but was soon back on his feet, only to be greeted by the sight of 18 other players surrounding their respective benches, taking on drinks with a minute to go to the interval.

Gillingham started the second half showing a higher degree of urgency in their play and the referee waved away loud appeals for a handball against Clarke in the opening moments.  Two Dack freekicks into the Scunthorpe area almost found Rehman and Ehmer respectively.  From the second, the visitors counter attacked with purpose as Madden played a ball forward for Dawson, who threaded a pass through the Gills defence for van Veen, but once again Nelson got his angles right to parry the Dutch striker’s shot away.

The home side changed their formation to react to increasing pressure from the promotion-chasing Scunthorpe, but the visitors doubled their lead before the changes could bed in.  Harry Toffolo raided forward from left-back and unchallenged, hit a skimming drive that appeared to wrong-foot Nelson before settling in the bottom corner; the goalkeeper appearing to get his legs tangled as he tried to move to save the shot.

The game changed back into Gillingham’s favour in a madcap 9minutes.  Bradley Dack exchanged passes with Jake Hessenthaler and was clipped from behind by Stephen Dawson as he was about to shoot.  Josh Wright stepped up and buried his spot kick in the bottom right corner; the penalty positioning had to be precise as Luke Daniels had guessed the right way and came within inches of pulling off the save.

This ignited the Rainham End and wave after wave of blue shirts poured forward.  The second penalty came from nothing as a hopeful ball to keep an attack going bounced off the arm of Iron skipper Dawson, and to a huge roar from behind the goal, Mr Lewis pointed for a second penalty.  This time, Wright sent Daniels the wrong way, placing his kick to the left side of the goal.

And the Gills man had a third opportunity, earned when Wright himself was clipped by Murray Wallace’s challenge with 5 minutes left in the match.  As with his second spot kick, Wright drilled the ball into the left side of the goal for his 12th of the season (and 9th in the last 11 games) with Daniels going the wrong way to complete a remarkable hatrick, and comeback.  Incredibly, this was Gillingham’s first hatrick in the League since Jo Kuffour in 2011.

Scunthorpe launched ball after ball into the Gillingham area to try to avoid extending their winless run to 9 games, but two clean punches from Nelson and some desperate defending from the blue wall kept the visitors at bay.

GILLINGHAM: 1- Stuart Nelson; 31- Zesh Rehman, 5- Max Ehmer, 4- Chris Herd (16- Emmanuel Osadebe 46); 23- Bradley Dack, 33- Mark Byrne, 44- Josh Wright, 14- Lee Martin (8- Jake Hessenthaler 73), 6- Deji Oshilaja; 17- Joe Quigley (19- Josh Parker 68), 10- Cody McDonald.

Subs not used: 30- Tomas Holy, 21- Elliot List, 22- Mitch Dickenson, 29- Oliver Muldoon.

Goals: Josh Wright 77 (pen), 82 (pen) & 86 (pen)

Cautions: Max Ehmer 25, Chris Herd 34, Josh Wright 86, Mark Byrne 90+3

SCUNTHORPE UNITED: 1- Luke Daniels; 33- Jordan Clarke, 5- Murray Wallace, 6- David Mirfin (28- Craig Davies 86), 15- Harry Toffolo; 26- Jamie Ness (12- Neal Bishop 75), 8- Stephen Dawson, 30- Matt Crooks, 14- Tom Hopper (24- Ivan Toney 86); 9- Paddy Madden, 10- Kevin van Veen.

Subs not used: 13- Joe Anyon, 2- Scott Wiseman, 19- Duane Holmes, 20- Charlie Goode.

Goals: Paddy Madden 4, Harry Toffolo 73

Cautions: Paddy Madden 50, Kevin van Veen 70, Murray Wallace 84, Jordan Clarke 87, Ivan Toney 89

Attendance: 6,859 (226 away)
Referee: Mr Robert Lewis
Assistants: Mr Andrew Aylott and Mr Stephen Finch
Fourth Official: Mr Carl Brook