Gillingham - 3 (Ipoua 9. 33. Onuora 20.)
Crystal Palace - 0

It was really quite a simple equation. All Palace needed to do was win this outstanding match and they would be top of the League. As usual this proved too hard a task for them, and they fell early in the game to stop any thoughts the faithful might have had of rejoicing this evening.

Within the first minute of the match Palace had managed to miss the goal through a shot by Clinton Morrison, and they had had an offside decision go against them courtesy of Dougie Freedman. Palace then got a free kick, taken by Jovan Kirovski, but he merely managed to put his shot over the top of the bar.

A series of throw-ins led to end-to-end play before; with only about nine minutes gone the home side was suddenly 1-0 up. Marcus Browning hit a good pass into the center, and Guy Ipoua made no mistake, hitting the ball along the carpet and into the back of the net for an easy goal.

Christian Edwards then took a free kick following a foul on David Hopkin, and Browning managed to earn a yellow card following an incident with Dougie. Marlon King was caught offside before a shot by David Perpetuini was well saved by Matt Clarke in goal. It was to be Gillingham that scored the second goal though.

A foul by Aki Riihilahti on ex-Palace player Simon Osborn led to a free kick which was taken by Osborn, his pass flying straight to Iffy Onuora who shot an identical goal to the first on the other side of the goal. Although it was Gillingham that was close to the bottom of the table, and Palace that stood a chance of going top, it was obvious even this early that Palace were going to get nothing from this match.

A couple of fouls were traded in midfield before Palace won a corner. Needless to say the chance was wasted, the ball being cleared by the Gills defence. Onuora was then caught offside, but shortly after the home side won a corner, this one being cleared by David well back in defence. An innocuous ball from the right hand side of the pitch was headed on by Paul Smith, and Ipoua repeated his earlier strike, and suddenly we were looking at a cricket score, the first 30 minutes had passed, and we were already 3-0 down.

A chance then fell to Dougie, but when the run of play is going against you it seems there is little you can do to even-up the field of play, and so it was here with Dougie firing wide of the mark. A corner to Palace was a shot from Clinton, but it went straight to the keeper, then the defence cleared a corner at the other end.

A strike by Browning went well over the top before Jovan went on a good run, but he ended up in the opposition box with no support, and the chance was wasted.

Somehow we survived until the half time whistle, and though we could be sure that Steve Kember would do all in his power to gee up the troops it was certainly questionable if he would be able to lift the side sufficiently to get anything out of this match.

At the start of the second half Dougie got into the box, but the defence closed him down, and almost immediately the ball was up the other end of the field, where Onuora put a shot over the top of the bar.

Dougie got a shot on goal, but it was also straight at the keeper, and then at the other end Marlon King saw his shot deflected wide of the goal. Our efforts at goal were leading us nowhere, and there was invariably a counter attack at the other end each and every time we went anywhere near their area.

Paul Shaw came on late in the match, and he got a shot straight on goal, this time Matt being equal to the task. In fact Matt was suddenly starting to look a little safer in goal, but that was never going to get us the three-goal deficit back. Aki managed a good clearance from an attacking move by the Gills, but as usual the immediate reply was an attack from the home side, this time Onuora shooting wide.

A free kick, once again to the home side, saw Smith shoot straight at Matt in goal, and though the ref added three minutes of injury time on from somewhere we held out till the end. Our consolation? We did, at least, draw the second half 0-0, but the first half strikes from the home side killed off the match long before the break for the oranges. Palace got what they deserved from this match, but they will learn from it, and hopefully they will bounce back on Saturday against Preston.

Good luck, lads.

Colin Pryce

Gillingham: Vince Bartram, Barry Ashby, Chris Hope, Marcus Browning (Mark Saunders 87), Simon Osborn, David Perpetuini, Paul Smith, Guy Ipoua, Marlon King, Iffy Onuora (Paul Shaw 71), Nayron Nosworthy.

Substitutes not used: Guy Butters, Mark Patterson, Andy Hessenthaler.

Crystal Palace: Matt Clarke, Dean Austin, Christian Edwards, Hayden Mullins, Julian Gray, Aki Riihilahti, Simon Rodger (Tommy Black 64), David Hopkin, Dougie Freedman, Jovan Kirovski (Gregg Berhalter 79), Clinton Morrison.

Substitutes not used: Alex Kolinko, Steve Thomson, Steve Kabba.

Attendance: 9,396

Referee: Mr P Danson (Leicester)