The Upsetter

Crewe 1 Gillingham 1

There was no pre-match "lucky" walk this week because I had too much to do on Saturday morning and anyway, my walking partner was unavailable. I had planned to do a load of stuff on my day off on Friday but I was stuck in the house all day because I had to have the front door open while it was being painted and then allowed to dry. So I had to do it all my chores on Saturday instead.
Anyway, having not had the usual lucky walk, I was fearing the worst. Crewe had looked a bit dodgy at the back in the last couple of games and were without their leading goalscorers whereas Gillingham were on a good run having climbed 16 places from 22nd since Crewe beat them at Priestfields. Gillingham had also acquired Adebayo Akinfenwa, who may be the fattest professional footballer but who always prospers in games against Crewe.
The first half was a pretty dismal affair. Crewe had a few attacks, but couldn't capitalise when they got in on goal. Gillingham only had one game plan and that was to knock the ball up to Akinfenwa and get men up to support him. Crewe did a good job of starving him of possession though but putting Lee Bell in front of him and cutting off his supply. Crewe did however have a rare stroke of luck. Danny Shelley worked hard down the left wing to get a cross in and although it was too high for AJ Leitch-Smith, his jump unsighted the Gillingham defender and the unfortunate Sinclair shinned it in to his own net. Shelley later had a chance to extend the lead but hit the ball against the keeper's legs when he maybe should have done better. Then Byron Moore  managed to fall over while overplaying the ball when he should have just hit it first time. Gillingham weren't showing much and were largely reduced to shooting from distance. They weren't making any friends in the Crewe crowd though, as a number of late tackles were flying in. The referee waved a card a couple of times but never really got a grip on it.
Having got to half-time in front, Crewe knew that Gillingham would throw everything at them after the break and so it proved. They moved the ball well, pinned Crewe in their own half and got the goal that seemed to be on the cards when Weston found time and space to lash in an unstoppable shot from about twenty yards out. Disappointing but with more than half an hour to go, both sides must have thought the game was still there to be won. Actually, scratch that. After they equalised, Gillingham seemed to revert to type and played like they were happy with the point. They slowed the game down and, despite being warned twice, the goalkeeper took as long as he could to get the ball back in play whenever he had control of it.
Both sides had chances, although Crewe had rather more. Akinfenwa managed to bustle through the Crewe defence only to see his shot saved by Rhys Taylor's trailing leg. Murphy for Crewe had a couple of good efforts on target and Westwod and Shelley both had shots blocked. It looked like heading to a stalemate but Crewe still gave us a scare. They were almost caught on the counter-attack in the final minutes, but Artell took one for the team by bringing down Dennis Oli just over the halfway line. Artell earned himself a yellow card but more importantly, earned time for the defence to get back and re-organise themselves.
Overall, a draw was probably a fair result. Crewe's defence nullified the attacking threat of Gillingham's leading striker (McDonald), who barely had a sniff, but couldn't create enough against a determined Gills defence either. I would have probably taken a point before the game, although Gillingham were nothing special.
Both Miller and Donaldson will be available again next week and one would hope that this means that they play up front with Moore dropping back to play on the wing and Leitch-Smith and Shelley dropping to the bench. That'd be a bit harsh on Leitch-Smith who is getting his first run in the team and probably still needs games to find his feet and also harsh on Shelley who always found a Crewe shirt with his passes in midfield and gave us an extra option from free-kicks with his thunderbolt shot. Whoever plays, it's a home game against Stevenage and we really need to give them a stuffing after the capers at their place earlier in the season.