Gillingham 1 Bradford City 0

Last updated : 21 April 2003 By Footymad Previewer

GilGillingham ended a run of six games without a win to earn their first victory over City at Priestfield for 20 years.

Not since the days of Tony Cascarino had they managed to beat the Bantams on home soil having lost 5-1 and 4-0 last season, they completed a win double having won 3-1 at Valley Parade last November.

The game was more exciting than an end-of-season contest between two teams to play for but pride had any right to be. Without a clutch of injured first-team players, including himself, Andy Hessenthaler pulled a tactical surprise which worked a treat.

He played Nayron Nosworthy as an emergency striker, deciding against playing youngster Jones Awuah alongside Mamady Sidibe with Rod Wallace and Tommy Johnson ruled out. It worked a treat as Nosworthy came close to improving on a strike rate of just one goal in 127 previous games.

He sent two efforts wide, struck a post and then fired another rasping effort just too high in the second half.

In between two first-half close-range efforts Gillingham took the lead. A move well worked on the right opened up the Bantams defence, and Paul Shaw pounced to fire home his 13th goal of the season, just one short of his best ever tally in League football.

City, without Ashley Ward, relied on top scorer Andy Gray up front while youngster Frazer McHugh got his league debut in place of Peter Atherton.

Claus Jorgensen started the game aiming to equal the legendary Dixie Dean's record of scoring in nine successive away League games. However, with City constantly on the back foot chances were few and far between until the 65th minute when he struck Jason Brown's left-hand post.

However City had to wait until the 80th minute for their only effort on goal by Gray and the shots statistic of 15-5 in Gillingham's favour emphasises how dominant the home side were throughout.

Hesenthaler said: "I thought long and hard about our front pairing because I didn't think we were hurting teams enough. Nayron has bags of endeavour and pace and is full of tricks and I thought he and Mama Sidibe would trouble Bradford and thankfully it worked." However City boss Nicky Law did not hide his disappointment in his team's display. He said: "We let ourselves and our supporters who travelled down. In fact a 1-0 defeat flatters us because we didn't compete."