By Jack Nolan
December 30 2006

Gillingham were well beaten by a very good Oldham side who put three past the Gills without conceeding. Goals from Oldham's Porter, Liddel from the spot and Eardley sealed a disapointing defeat for Gillingham. Gillingham manager Ronnie Jepson stuck with the same side that beat Tranmere Rovers and Leyton Orient.

The first goal came on twenty five minutes when on loan Dean Brill seemed to be able to collect Andy Liddells ball with ease only to change his mind to retreat only to allow Porter to chip him for one nothing to the Latics.

The key incident of the game however when Ian Cox was adjudged to have brought down Porter inside the box being penalised with a red card and giving Oldham a penalty.

Andy Liddell stepped up to cooly convert to double Oldham's advantage over the Gills.

Oldham went in at half time two nil up and Gillingham went in one man down. Heavy rain had started at half time and many Gills fans were hoping for the game to be abandoned but unfortunatly that wasn't going to happen for Gills fans.

Ten minutes after the interval however, it was three. Oldham's Neil Eardley unleashed a good shot and despite Chorleys best efforts, Eardley's shot found a way in.

The full time was welcomed to jeers from some fans but many fans will accept that Oldham were simply a different class to Gillingham,

After the game Ronnie Jepson also admitted that he had made two enquiries about 'two or three players' with the transfer winow opening on Monday, it is unknown however who those enquiries were for.

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GFC Online Man of the Match

MARK BENTLEY
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VIEWS

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RONNIE JEPSON

"I was looking forward to this game and everything that could conspire against us today, it did. The positive thing for me today was that the ten lads that we had out there on the park, they stuck to it. That was pleasing as it was always going to be difficult even with eleven men against a good Oldham side who are flying at the moment. They are a good team and have good experience with players like Sean Gregan, Andy Liddell and Simon Charlton. The rightback, Neale Eardley, is a good player and so too is there captain, Will Haining. They've also got Richie Wellens pulling the strings in the middle and I don't need to mention the lad Will Porter up front as his goals speak for themselves. We knew it was going to be a tough task. That task became tougher with ten men but credit to my boys as I thought they dug in there very well.

"I didn't see it as a sending off. I will have a look at it again on the video and assess it from there but I will keep my thoughts to myself on that one at this moment in time as I don't want to get into trouble. The lads stuck to it but the sending off killed the game in a way. Instead of it being a cricket score, the lads kept going and even with ten men, we still created a few opportunities, especially in the last 15 to 20 minutes.

"We are looking forward to Millwall, just as we were looking forward to the game today. We will take a decent following there. We've had a good couple of games prior to today and the boys got a good couple of result. We'll go there with no fear. Obviously we respect Millwall as they have got a good squad of players. We look forward to it and I just hope that the conditions are a little bit better than they were today and that we can keep eleven men on the pitch. I haven't looked to see who the referee is yet!

"Some people might have been happy with six points from these three games at the start but when you have got those six points on the board and you have then got a team at home, we expected to get something out of the game today. I thought we would have done that with eleven men but having just the one up front, it is a big disadvantage as they can play it out of the back. I could have gone with two up front and played three in the middle of the park but they would have gone straight onto us at the back. It was always going to be difficult with the conditions.

"Bas Savage has signed for another month and his deal ends on 28th January. He'll be in training with us and playing in games and hopefully he can do well enough to earn a contract at the football club.

We have made enquiries about one or two players and we are waiting for those respective clubs to come back to us. It is all about availability and affordability.

"The Chairman had an offer from Plymouth for Matty Jarvis but turned it down. I haven't spoken to anybody personally about Matty. Matty is a proper lad to work with and you could see his performance today, he kept going until the end. He never stopped going and that is Matty, he is as honest as the day is long.