By Jack Nolan
April 9 2007

Gillingham shocked promotion chasing Bristol City today following a Dean McDonald header. The Gills needed a victory in their fight against the drop, with Bristol City needing the win chasing Scunthorpe at the top, whilst looking over their shoulders with Forest chasing them.
Gillingham.1.0.Bristol City
Priestfield Stadium
Coca-Cola Football League One
9/4/07

Romain Larrieu replaced Kelvin Jack ahead of The Gills' big game with Bristol City at the Priestfield Stadium. Larrieu was set to play his last game in his current loan contract, with Jepson aiming to extend the deal as Kelvin Jack has a knee problem.

The first real chance of the game fell to Cities Brian Wilson, who not a Gills favourite following his earlier blatant dive in the box, following a good ball from Enoch Showunmi. With Wilson just needing to tap the ball into a corner, he ended up hitting his effort into the upper end of The Rainham End.

Gillinghams best effort of the first half came just after twenty minutes. Cox found Ben Chorley whose goal bound header was cleared off of the line.

The sides went in level at the interval and following a disappointing first half, Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu was replaced by dean McDonald.

Just ten minutes into the second half and Jepson's substitution worked wonders. Bentley's cross somehow evaded the City defender and McDonald, half the size of the defender, rose to head home the eventual Gills winner.

With Priestfield buzzing, The Gills aimed for a second. Danny Spiller shot straight at City keeper Adriano Basso from inside the box.

City then pushed for an equaliser, and came agonizingly close ten minutes from time. Under pressure, Easton's attempted clearance rebounded off of the under-side of the crossbar, then Myrie-Wiliams somehow hit the crossbar from close-range.

With lady luck appearing to be in Gills' favour, City missed several more decent chances. On the counter however, substitute Frannie Collin - who replaced Dean McDonald who suffered an injury, showed some impressive skills to beat three men inside the box found Danny Spiller who somehow hit over the bar from eight yards. Collin in his first appearance of the season, showing what he can do in impressive fashion and looks like he could feature again in The Gills' trip to Chesterfield next week.

Gillingham somehow held on to win all three points whilst putting a minor dent in Cities automatic promotion hopes.

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"I am so pleased for the lads. After letting it slip up at Rotherham, we've come back here today and responded in a great way. The players gave their all and that is all I can ask for. We want to win every game that we play in. The supporters expect that and I expect that so hopefully we can have a good end to the season.

"It was a very open game. Bristol City needed the points as they are gunning for promotion. We always knew it was going to be tough against a quality team. They have got some quality players. All eleven players they have got can handle the ball well, pass it well and they have got good movement. My lads couldn't give me any more than they did today. We knew it would be difficult as they play some quality stuff but we kept at it and stuck to the task. I am very happy with the three points.

"Danny Spiller had a couple of chances to kill the game off but they put a lot of balls into our box. We had to deal with a lot and one or two hit and went over the bar. Sometimes it is your day and it was ours today. I have to give full credit to the lads for the way we defended and stuck at it.

"The last thing I expected Dean McDonald to do was score with a header! I am very pleased for him. It is just a shame that his hamstring tightened up and we had to replace him with Frannie Collin. It was a great ball in from Mark Bentley. "Benno" set the ball rolling in the first-half and I thought he was immense today. We were right through the middle of the park. "Spills", Andrew Crofts, Ian Cox, they were all strong there today. I think that dragged everyone else into it, we got a strong footing and I am very pleased.

"I had six or seven man of the matches today. If you saw the amount of headers "Spills" won today, against two big, experienced lads, he was different gear. He put his head in and ran himself into the ground. When people see you doing that, whether you win, lose or draw, I'll have that; I'll have it all day long. He epitomised us today, along with the likes of "Coxy", "Crofty" and "Benno", and it went a long way towards getting those three points.

"It was there for everybody to see today. I know we are down to the bare bones but I never make excuses for them. They are professionals and what we have got, we have to go with and try to get the best out of them I think you have to back yourselves and show people that you are good enough. When you have got six or seven players on top form like we had today, you've always got a chance of a result.

"Felix Bastians got a bang on his knee; a bit of a stud mark there. He's had treatment and we'll assess him tomorrow morning. Kelvin Jack came in with a sore knee on Sunday morning so he was out.

"I have got to give Romain Larrieu so much credit. He has snapped a tendon in one of his fingers. He has to see a specialist tomorrow but hopefully he can play for the rest of the season, whether that is here or back at Plymouth. I'll need to speak to Ian Holloway about that. Romain played today with some strapping and a brace. I have to give him lots of credit and if he doesn't come back to Priestfield, I would like to wish him well because he has been fantastic, both with the players and with what he gives to the team. He is a good lad and he is my type of guy."

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