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| Gillingham 1 v 2 Coventry Full-time Shaw 90 Martinez 14 Chippo 45 Safri s/o 65 Gillingham: Bartram , Ashby , Hope , Edge , Browning (Ipoua 80) , Gooden (Perpetuini 43) , Smith , Hessenthaler , King , Onuora , Nosworthy (Shaw 71) Subs not used: Butters , Saunders Bookings: Nosworthy 60, Browning 62 Coventry: Goram , Breen (Williams 46) , Konjic (Quinn 77) , Shaw , Nilsson (O'Neill 34) , Edworthy , Carsley , Chippo , Safri , Delorge , Martinez Subs not used: Hedman , McSheffrey Bookings: Safri 52 Well City's unbeaten streak continues with a victory in Kent against Gillingham. Thankfully, our preparations for the game went better than Roland Nilsson's as we got over the Dartford Tunnel and into the Dog And Bone pub for midday. Nilsson had more on his mind with David Thompson and Jay Bothroyd not recovering from injuries sustained at Barnsley. This was followed by Lee Hughes injuring his calf in training and Magnus Hedman falling prey to a bug and spending the whole night being sick. Hedman recovered sufficiently to get a place on the bench as Nilsson gave Andy Goram his debut and had to bring in Laurent Delorge to play along side Jairo Martinez. With the 1250 strong City support that included Sky TV Presenter and Cov fan Richard Keys packed onto a small open terrace, the opening exchanges were scrappy until Laurent Delorge created the first chance in the 8th minute when he raced goalwards down the right wing and saw his shot superbly tipped away by Gills keeper Bartram for a corner. Two minutes later, Lee Carsley nearly put City ahead with a 20 yard free kick but the former Blackburn midfielder's kick went just over the bar. Three minutes later, City took the lead. Lee Carsley crossed from the right, the ball found Delorge,who tired to control but succeeded in knocking the ball back to Jairo Martinez whose low shot went low into the goal between the keeper and post. The home side started to come back into the game and Iffy Onuora, who played for the Gills, the last time City visited Priestfield Stadium in 1996, saw his close range header rattle the bar . The ball bounced away but was driven back in, Marcus Browning headed goalwards but the ball was superbly saved by Goram from point blank range. Nilsson had to limp off in the 33rd minute and was replaced by Keith O'Neill and saw Chippo move to the right wing and Edworthy took over Nilsson's role. In the 37th minute,Martinez missed a glorious chance to add another to his tally when he slipped his marker, his shot hit Bartram's foot and was cleared on the line by Edge. Just before the break, City increased their lead. City had a free-kick on the right flank which Carsley floated over, the ball fell to O'Neill whose shot was deflected back out to Chippo on the edge of the box. The Moroccan teed up the ball and drilled his shot low through a crowd of players and into the net. On the stroke of half-time, Lee Carsley missed a glorious chance to put the game beyond all doubt but his right footed effort bounced off the post and away. The talk at the break was of how many goals City would add to this score-line, but our hopes of a big boost to the Sky Blues goal difference did not materialise in the second period. Nilsson replaced the injured Gary Breen with Paul Williams who has been awarded a free transfer by Nilsson for the second half and the former Derby defender made himself captain. Luck was starting to run out for the Sky Blues and the City Physio was kept busy treating Martinez,Konjic and Carsley. Safri had been booked for a foul in the 52nd minute and eleven minutes later, he made a tackle on Gills sub Perpetuini. The linesman on the Main Stand side was furiously waving his flag and the home fans were baying for blood for a tackle which from our angle looked pretty inoccuous. Referee Eddy Wolstenholme decided that the home support were correct and promptly dismissed Youseff Safri for a second bookable offence which thankfully will only carry a one match suspension. City raced straight down the field and Chippo hit a shot which was superbly saved by Bartram and tipped away for a corner. Unfortunately, City could not capitalise on the corner as Paul Williams blasted the ball wide of the goal. Having a man advantage put the impetus back into the home side and Goram made two good saves before Mo Konjic suffered an injury to his right arm and had to be replaced by Barry Quinn who slotted in at left-back. City did try to finish off a poor Gillingham side and Chippo and Martinez should have done better with two efforts. In the second minute of stoppage time. Paul Williams lost concentration and gave the ball away, it was passed to Paul Shaw on the penalty spot and the former Millwall striker blasted the ball into the net giving Goram no chance. City, who have rearranged their home reserve game against Ipswich for Thursday October 11, managed to hold on and seal another win to keep them in ninth place. Nilsson sent all the players over to thank the fans for their support. This was a good performance but a costly one considering the injuries and the suspension of Safri. Thankfully, there are ten days for physio Stuart Kimmie to get the players fit for the next game against Chelsea,he will be a busy man. TEAM 30 Goram,2 Edworthy,5 Shaw,6 Breen (4 Williams 45),22 Konjic (14 Quinn 76), 24 Nilsson (16 O'Neill 33),27 Safri (sent off 63), 11 Chippo,8 Carsley,28 Delorge,25 Martinez SNU 13 Hedman,29 McSheffrey RATINGS 30 GORAM 8/10 Excellent debut, made some good saves 2 EDWORTHY 6/10 Kept changing positions and in the end did not know where he was 5 SHAW 7/10 Reasonable game 6 BREEN 8/10 Solid in defence before limping off 22 KONJIC 8/10 Another good game before limping off, City look a lot better with him than without 22 NILSSON 6/10 Looked ok,before falling to an injury 11 CHIPPO 8.5/10 Fine game, battled well in midfield and took his goal well. 8 CARSLEY 7/10 Tried hard in midfield 27 SAFRI 7/10 Was doing well before he saw red 28 DELORGE 6/10 A quiet game 25 MARTINEZ 8/10 Could have had a hat-trick and his pace was a constant threat for Gillingham 16 O'NEILL 7/10 Reasonable game on left flank 14 QUINN 7/10 Did ok, but only on for 20 minutes 4 WILLIAMS 5/10 Cost us a goal,missed one and looked dodgy throughout, no wonder he is free to a good home |