First and foremost, I hope you are all having a pleasant Christmas break relaxing with family and friends, and wishing you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. This will be our final match of 2025, with a trip to Priestfield to face old adversary Gillingham, our second game against them this month and our third this season. This will be our 112th game in all competitions against the Gills, a relationship that started with a Ted Davis U’s side winning 2-0 at Layer Road on 27th August 1938. At the final whistle tomorrow we will also be at the halfway point of the season, so considering at the end of September we were 20th, plenty of optimism for the second half of the season.
As for the U’s and the travelling faithful of nearly 800 at Crawley, I had family over on Boxing Day, so I couldn’t really give the game my full attention. Crawley’s early goal on the balance of play at the time didn’t appear undeserved. It was well struck, might have got the faintest of deflections off Tucker, but Macey will still be disappointed that he let it slip under him so easily. However, the equaliser was equally deserved, an excellent run to the line and cutback from Samson, Read should have buried his chance but the keeper’s parry fell nicely to Lisbie who drilled in off the inside of the post. Thereafter, it seemed quite an even (though dare I say dull) game. We created chances in the second half, but in truth Crawley probably should have won it at the death, only foiled by the feet and then hands of Macey in a last-ditch double-save, with Loft then blazing the final rebound wide of the far post. On balance, a solid point, another game unbeaten away, but the gap to the play-offs is growing again.
Since our return to the football league, Priestfield has often been quite a happy hunting ground, with only five out of our 21 most recent visits ending in defeat for the U’s, the last one under Kevin Keen exactly ten years ago today (28th December). Gillingham are in a somewhat indifferent run of form at present, yes only three games lost in the last ten, but only one victory and the other six drawn – and that victory was at imploding Bristol Rovers back in early November. Their long-suffering home supporters haven’t seen a Priestfield win since beating Notts County 1-0 on 13th September - I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of those kinds of stats. That early run of form took the Gills to the top of the table, but they’ve floundered since then and currently sit one point and two places behind the U’s.
Incidentally, probably one of our most noteworthy, and certainly memorable games at the Priestfield Stadium wasn’t even against Gillingham – it was the 4-4 draw against exiled Brighton and Hove Albion on Boxing Day 1997. Goals from Isaiah Rankin (two) and Tony Adcock saw the U’s storm into a 3-0 lead at half-time. A second half 20 minute hat-trick from Paul Emblen wiped out that advantage, Scott Stamps rekindled hope that we might leave with the three points on 75 minutes, only for an 86th minute penalty from Jeff Minton to dash that hope entirely.
I’m not aware of any (new) injury worries following on from the Crawley game, so I’d expect the line-up at Gillingham to be broadly along the same lines. However, following two 30+ minute appearances from the bench, I have a feeling Jack Payne might be ready for his place back in the starting XI, with Bishop making way.
The weather in Kent tomorrow evening will be overcast with a gentle breeze blowing in from the Thames Estuary, making the chilly 6 degrees temperature feel like 4 degrees. Fortunately for the travelling faithful on the big open terrace, no rain is expected. Our initial allocation of tickets has sold out, with a new block now made available, so I would expect another sizeable following for the U’s to witness a 2-1 victory for the U's, with Anderson and then Tovide on the scoresheet.
Up the U’s [Post edited 28 Dec 14:37]
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