Gillingham boss Martin Allen saw his side dominate their FA Cup match against League 1 Scunthorpe United
by Luke Cawdell
Gillingham swept aside League 1 Scunthorpe to
leave boss Martin Allen beaming with pride.
The Gills have hit four goals now in each of
their last three home games – the latest of which saw them cruise
past a team from a higher division.
“I feel proud,” said Allen (pictured).
“We made five changes to the team that did so
well last week and I am so lucky that I have so many good players
in my squad.
“The first half was a challenge. The
opposition (Scunthorpe) had a new manager and we expected them to
be hard to beat. It was always going to be difficult to break them
down. We expected that and we were up against it.
“In the second half we had far too much
passion, power, pace, quality in possession and we played some
great football. Our full-backs were bombing forward and, once we
were moving that ball around in the middle of the pitch and going
forward, there was only ever going to be one winner.”
And Allen felt confident even at half-time
with the match poised at 0-0.
He said: “I didn’t say much
at half-time, I’ve got to be honest.
“I thought we did really well first half. We
stood firm and we battled with them and we stood up to it. I said
‘now let’s start playing, let’s go up another notch, another level.
You can go faster, you can jump higher and you can pass it a little
better. Let’s now go for them’.
“We had done the first part, which was the
battle, and the second part was about showing the quality with the
ball.
“We wanted to make more passes and our
full-backs bombing forward as much as we could and we just
dominated it from start to finish. Our goalkeeper maybe had one
save to make early on but that next chance didn’t come until the
87th minute. It was just total domination from start to
finish.”
And despite the scoreline, Allen felt the
result was never in doubt.
“It didn’t feel that special because I knew we
would win,” he said.
“I expected to win and I thought we would. I
am not in shock, or surprised, or thinking, ‘oh my God let’s get
some champagne’, I just knew it was going to be a win.”
At half-time did you think Gillingham would be so
dominant in the second half? Comment below.
02/11/12
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