By Jack Nolan
January 24 2007

Swansea handed Gillingham their fourth defeat in five games on Tuesday as goals from Akinfenwa and Robinson condemned Gills to their first defeat to Swansea in seven meetings. Matt Jarvis limped off injured.
Swansea.2.0.Gillingham
Liberty Stadium

It was just six minutes into the game when on loan 'keeper Romain Larrieu conceeded on his debut. Former Gillingham target Adebayo Akinfenwa latched onto Lee Trundle's cross to give the Welsh side an early lead.

Former Gillingham 'favourite' Tom Williams was jeered by Gills fans at every opportunity and was denied a goal against his former employers on numerous times by Larrieu.

After a change of referee's before the interval, the Gills went in one goal down at the Liberty Stadium.

Swansea manager Kenny Jackett then made a interesting substitution by bringing off top goalscorer Lee Trundle to be replaced by Andy Robinson, and it paided off for the Swans as Robinson went on to double the Swans' advantage over the Gills. Akinfenwa's through ball set Robinson through and he fired home, giving Larrieu no chance.

The game finished two nil to the Swans, but a worrying site for Gills fans was seeing both Jarvis and Bentley limp off injured. The duo shall be rested before fitness tests to see if the pair are fit for Gillinghams televised fixture with Tranmere on Friday night.

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RONNIE JEPSON

"We obviously got off to a bad start, you fear the worst when you go behind that early, especially against a team of Swansea's quality, but I have got to give my boys credit. I'm often the first to have a go at them but they have come here, against a good Swansea team and have given a good account of themselves.

"I'm not happy with the result but I'm happy with the way the boys went about it, I've got no qualms there, other than the fact I'd like to have seen a goal or two.

"In the second half we had a long sustained period where I thought the goal was going to come, we had enough chances to get the goal, so much so they took Lee Trundle off and went 4-1-4-1 which was quite surprising, but it just wasn't there for us tonight and they got the other goal. But we created enough chances at 1-0 and it would have been very interesting if we got that goal.

"They (Bentley and Jarvis) both took bad knocks on their ankles, so the concern now is to get them right for Friday.

"We travelled back from Cheltenham on Saturday, we left Priestfield this morning at 9:00am this morning and we'll get back at half two or three o'clock, so it's important we get the lads rested and get the right food into them, and it's a good game for everyone to look forward to on Friday, live on Sky, so hopefully we can show people what we're about.