Action and Reaction as Gillingham Are Held 1-1 at League Two Leaders Brentford

(Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)

The Action

After dominating for large parts of the game, Gillingham was forced to settle for just a point away from a win at Brentford with a 1-1 draw.

The Gills had initially fallen behind to the League Two leaders when the home side's first real chance of the match turned into a goal.

David Hunt hit a well-taken free-kick to put the Bees ahead at 42 minutes, much to the delight of the home fans.

But Gillingham responded in the second half with a hatful of decent goal-scoring opportunities, most notably when Mark McCammon headed one just wide seconds after the re-start.

The Gills got the important lifeline they required just before the hour mark, when Andy Barcham was felled inside the box and a penalty was given.

Canadian international striker Simeon Jackson stepped up to take the kick and slotted home to bring the visitors level and notch his 18th goal of the season.

Gillingham huffed and puffed towards the end, dominating possession and creating several more chances than the hosts.

In the end, though, they were made to rue their missed chances, as the Griffin Park contest ended in a tie. This means the Gills remain in fourth place while Brentford resumes its position at the top of the League Two table.

The Reaction

Gillingham manager Mark Stimson was disappointed his side did not claim all three points in their top-of-the-table clash at Griffin Park but maintained that a point is still satisfactory.

Speaking after the match, he said:

"I felt we deserved the three points. We'll take a point but we're disappointed, because we didn't come for anything else, we went for the three points.

"We didn’t get them, but we played very well and one will do us."

The Gills boss also said that it would've been harder had his team not got a point, and that his players need to stay focused for the remaining games in this season.

"The boys will take a lot from the game," Stimson added. "They know they deserved something from the game, and if they hadn't got anything, then I think it would have been tricky to pick them up.

"We've got six games left now, and we have to focus on what we have to do and want to achieve. If we play like (this) for the next six games, I'm sure we will win more than we lose."

Lastly, Stimmo went on to praise the club's supporters and the "phenomenal" amount of them present away at Brentford.

"The army of supporters that we had with us was phenomenal," said the Gills supremo. "We had around 1,800 in the ground, but it sounded like 6,000, and they appreciated at the end what the boys put in. I'll have a lot better Sunday than I did the week before."

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