Gills youngsters come from behind at Beechings to beat AFC Wimbledon.
Gillingham 2-1 AFC Wimbledon
Beechings Cross
Youth Alliance South-East
Ronald Sithole (2)
With Mark Moss....
“In the first half they had more of the ball, they started brighter, but we purposely sat off and let them have it at the back but then wanted to press once they got to a certain point, win it back and try to counter.
“This worked, because they didn’t really create anything of note. We had the better of the chances; the first half was even up until 43 minutes when they scored off a well worked set piece. We’ve looked at it back on the video, we know where it’s come from and we can learn from it.
“We said at half-time we had to win so we wanted to push higher, we started to dominate and they couldn’t get out. I thought it was a matter of time before we equalised, which we did.
“The first goal was a corner which got cleared to the side. Our trialist swung it in left footed, Freddie [Carter] kept it alive and Ronnie came in with a really good finish, hit it so hard with great technique into the roof of the net.
“The pleasing thing for me was that, the further the game went on, the more likely we looked to win it. I was happy with the fitness levels and three minutes before the end we got the winner. We cleared a set piece, caught them on the break with good work from Jools [Julian Kuhr]. Ronnie ran from inside our half, took on three defenders, beat them all and then smashed a shot into the corner.”
With Gills having won the game, they will now have to wait to see what merit league they enter for the second half of the season. Mark explained what the process is.
“We are waiting on Sutton, they have two games left and if they win them both they’ll go ahead of us, “ he said. “But if either MK Dons or Southend take points off them we will be in Merit League 1. If they win both, we’ll be in Merit League 2. The top five from the south and west go into one, and the bottom five from each go into two.”
Gills: Crump, Leach, Dempsey, Carter, Gale, Kuhr, De Wilde, Hutcheon, Sithole, Garratt (Woodliffe 88), Moore (Trialist 60).
Unused subs: Bayliss