Andy Hessenthaler says Gillingham fortunate to win 'crazy' game against Northampton Town
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by Matthew Panting
Gillingham boss Andy Hessenthaler admitted his team were
fortunate to edge a seven-goal rollercoaster at Priestfield on
Saturday.
The Gills threw away 2-0 and 3-1 leads in League 2 against
Northampton before running out 4-3 winners thanks to Danny
Kedwell’s penalty in stoppage time.
“We’ve been fortunate but that’s football – that’s what
happens,” said Hessenthaler.
“It was a crazy game. I don’t want to be involved in that type
of game again, especially at home. Ultimately, it comes down to
winning a game of football – sometimes you win ugly and sometimes
games like that happens.
“Fortunately for us we ended up winning in the last minute. I’ve
been involved in games like that when it has gone the other
way.”
Hessenthaler expressed his disappointments at some of his team’s
defending after they got themselves into a position of superiority,
only to press the self-destruct button in front of their own
fans.
“When we went 2-0 up, we stopped doing things that we were good
at in respect of stopping them,” reflected Hessenthaler.
“Early on when the ball was played in to Akinfenwa we had enough
bodies around him. We got a bit complacent and thought that we
should have gone on and got the third and fourth – and we need to
learn from that as it cannot happen.
“But we made it too easy (for them) and it was too stretched in
the end.
“3-1 is a dangerous scoreline. They got (the second goal) from a
straight ball we didn’t deal with. I’ve got to say it was a foul on
Charlie Lee – he got a push in the back.
“It was a good set play (for the third goal) but you can’t let
players run off you like that, according to the boys Matt Fish got
blocked off. It was a clever free-kick.”
Hessenthaler praised his forwards, including the contribution of
Frank Nouble, who failed to get on the scoresheet despite having an
impressive game down the right flank.
“I always felt that we could still score (a fourth goal) as we
had the players up front – but not that late,” said
Hessenthaler.
“Frank was a handful most of the afternoon but Kuffour was
man-of-the-match by a country mile. It was a terrific hat-trick and
he was fantastic for us.”
Friday, November 04 2011
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