Manager Martin Allen reacts to yet another win and clean sheet for his Gillingham team
by Luke Cawdell
Everything came together for
Gillingham manager Martin Allen as his team entered the record
books on Saturday.
A club record 11th away win in the Football
League came courtesy of a goal from striker Cody McDonald from a
corner.
“That is the first goal we have scored away
from home from a corner for 16 games, so that’s relieving,” said
the Gills boss (pictured).
“To win away, with a clean sheet and a set
play that’s been worked on, for a coach and manager and for our
supporters, I am sure we are all very happy.”
And it was another clean sheet on the road
for Allen’s men – their fifth in a row – despite playing much of
the game without regular right-back Matt Fish, after he went
off with a twisted ankle.
“We defend as a team and we attack as a
team,” he said. “It was very difficult to actually make any
substitutions because all the subs could go on and do really
well.
“It is tough making that decision as to who
can go on to the pitch for our team and help our cause. Whelpdale
played right-back and the changes we made seemed to work. Deon came
on and did really well.
“We played some fantastic football on a
pitch that wasn’t as good as I expected it to be at Chesterfield.
We played some great football, one and two touch, moving the ball
around.
“The last 20 minutes were a bit scary but
we’ve seen it a million times that when we defend in numbers we are
strong. We have two very good centre- backs, two good
full-backs and a fantastic goalkeeper. All of them do the job so we
are not left open.
“There was great backing from the
supporters, because they sang non-stop and we should have had two
more goals on the counter-attack but we didn’t quite convert.
"It was probably the longest game in the
history of football wasn’t it? There were seven minutes of
extra-time and I though Match of the Day was about to start. It was
a fantastic performance all round from our squad.”
23/02/13
- Click here for more news from across the county...