Indiscipline costs Gannets dear

With two decent wins on the bounce behind them,the Gees travelled down to Gillingham in confident mood,Although the Anchorians were only just above us in the table,they had games in hand and also the third meanest defence in the division.

Our usual,ahem,thorough pre game programme was forgone just this once to allow the lads to watch the expected English pumping of the Italians after a few dropped balls,a few botched line outs and several attempts to touch our toes,we were underway and lining up as follows:

Rob Bardell,Martin Taylor,Harry Redsell,Gary Waters,Matt Clarke,Sam Holden,Toby Peare,Mike Percival,Ben Baker,Ian Shuttlewood,Ryan Culmer,Steve Wootton,Dan Beazer,Pete Stone,Nick Hunt.Replacements were Sarge,Louis Walker,John Knoight,Ian Rolfe,Garrick Smith,Wes Culmer and Luke Faulkin.

Bens deep kickoff was fielded by the big Anchorians pack but some stiff tackling soon had them pinned inside their own half.The first scrum was soon after and the Gees surprised themselves with a massive shove to win the turnover.An evenly contested forwards contest ensued with hard running and hitting from both sides,only ended when the home side worked the ball to their rangy fullback who beat several poor tackles to score under the posts for a try which he converted himself.

Unbowed by this,the Gees went back to the gameplan which had served them well over the past couple of games:sensible play using the pods and quick recycling of the ball.Eventually a penalty was conceded by the home side which Ben Baker took quickly,allowing Mike Percival to barge over for a 7-5 score.

By now most of the Anchorians play was going through the 10 with his booming kicks keeping the ball out of the Gees hands and pinning them back inside their 22 for large periods of the half.

2 further home tries followed for a half time 19-5 lead.

The Gees were by no means out of the game at the half and despite being penalised for a high tackle when it was around the chest and being called back when the advantage would have benefitted the Gannets more,a hard tackle from Wes (or was it Ryan?!) Culmer put the influential home 10 out of the game and the game,momentarily,started to turn in the Gees favour.

As the ball found its way to home backs,Steve Wootten smartly stepped in,nicking the ball and outpaced,yes outpaced,the home defence to score under the posts.Ben kicked the easy conversion and it was game on.

The Anchorians replied with a quick penalty before the game was turned was turned on its head with the dismissal of Matt 'the twat' Clarke for what can only be described as,well,a punch.This was quickly compounded by Louis joining him on the touchline for 10 minutes for objecting to being trodden on.

This pretty much stopped any momentum the Gannets had but the 13/14 men bravely battled on,conceding 2 further tries.Their resilience was rewarded in the dying seconds of the game when Ben Baker surfaced from the bottom of a driving maul over the try line (see photo).

Possibly the best moment of the game (from a Gannets perspective)was to follow when Ben chose to dropkick the conversion from out by the touchline...and nailed it.A feat that surely deserved him buying the team a jug.

Plenty of postives to take from the game,especially the forwards play in both the scrums and the loose.I'm sure the Anchorians were feeling the effects of Harry and Percys bulldozing runs the next morning.Also a try and a couple of conversions for Ben and who can forget Ian Shuttlewood?Eh?

Anyway,until next time...