Blues make it five away wins in a row

Gillingham 0 Wycombe Wanderers 2

The Blues continued their superb run of results away from Adams Park with a 2-0 win at Gillingham which sees them rise to 5th in the table, just three points below the automatic promotion places.

It was end-to-end stuff for the opening five minutes, with Wycombe almost taking an early lead when Stuart Beavon broke clear and played an inviting ball across the face of goal which Kevin Betsy couldn’t quite reach.

Beavon found himself in the clear again a few minutes later but Gills’ keeper Alan Julian was quickly off his line to close him down and avert the danger.

At the other end, Wycombe had a narrow escape as defender Chris Westwood almost scored an own-goal when he dived full length in an attempt to head the ball clear, only to watch in horror as it struck the foot of the post before rebounding to safety.

When the initial exchanges were over it was Gillingham who gained the upper hand, helped by the Wycombe defenders’ tendency to keep giving them the ball back.

For the Blues’ fans it was a nerve-wracking spell as both Adebayo Akinfenwa and Danny Spiller were given sight of goal but were unable to make their efforts count.

For all the Gills’ pressure, Wycombe still looked dangerous on the break and after 23 minutes an impressive move culminated in Beavon unselfishly laying the ball off for Gareth Ainsworth to ram it into the bottom left hand corner of the net to open the scoring.

Gillingham fought back and both Akinfenwa and Cody McDonald put shots wide of the post when well positioned to at least hit the target and work Blues’ keeper Nikki Bull.

There was still time for Ben Strevens to fire a fierce shot narrowly wide before half-time arrived and a happy travelling support applauded the Blues as they made their way down the tunnel.

The second-half was only four minutes old when Betsy doubled the Wanderers’ lead. Collecting the ball on the left, he cut inside and beat keeper Julian at his near post with a low shot which took his goal tally to five for the season and one in each of the last three games.

Gillingham had spells of pressure during the remainder of the second-half but the Blues always looked more likely to score again.

Ainsworth, Beavon and Danny Foster all had shots saved by Julian, and Betsy had a glorious chance to make it three when he broke away with only the keeper to beat but pulled his shot wide of the post.

Nikki Bull needed to make fine saves from a Cody McDonald header and a Stefan Payne shot, but apart from that the Gills never really looked like denting the Blues’ lead and the full-time whistle sounded on Wycombe’s fifth consecutive away win.

Bull did everything asked of him behind a defence that looked shaky at times in difficult windy conditions.

Betsy caused the Gills all sorts of problems and was the pick of the midfielders.

Stuart Beavon was superb.


Special Mention – Kevin Betsy


Man of the Match – Stuart Beavon