Despite all the doom and gloom at Gillingham heading into their fixture on Saturday, few could have predicted that they would push top-of-the-table Wigan Athletic all the way at the DW Stadium.
Heading into the game on the back of a 14-game winless spell, which has seen manager Steve Evans leave by mutual consent and Steve Lovell take on the role on a caretaker basis, the Gills were expected to lose heavily.
After falling 2-0 behind inside the opening quarter of the game, this prediction looked to become reality, but an excellent start to the second half led to Ben Reeves and Stuart O’Keefe unexpectedly pulling Gillingham level.
However, despite their admirable display, Will Keane netted late on to inflict a 3-2 defeat on Lovell and his side, which coupled with Doncaster Rovers’ win, saw them fall to the foot of the League One table.
With 10 points separating Tuesday’s hosts from Fleetwood Town outside of the relegation places already, Lovell and the future permanent manager face a hugely difficult task to keep Gillingham in the third tier
, but should Lovell be able to bring the positives out of their efforts at the weekend, hope could well be on the horizon if they can pick up a positive result in midweek.
Meanwhile, Shrewsbury’s 1-0 defeat at home to Bolton Wanderers on Saturday was another example of Tuesday’s visitors failing to take their chances in front of goal.
The failure to net in that game, despite attempting 21 shots on their opponents’ goal, mean it is now just two goals scored across their last five fixtures in all competitions.https://ca005c31695460a7bfba9dde65eaa03e.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html?n=0
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One of those two goals was Daniel Udoh’s incredible opener in the FA Cup third-round tie at Anfield against Liverpool, with Salop recording a goalless draw at Crewe Alexandra and then losing to Bolton on Saturday in the two weeks that have followed that cup tie.
Prior to the Liverpool game, Steve Cotterill’s side had picked up 10 points from a possible 12 in their four League One games immediately before it, but the setbacks over the past couple of weeks have left Shrewsbury in 18th place in the table.
Three places and as many points currently separate the visitors from Morecambe inside the relegation places, but with both AFC Wimbledon and Fleetwood in action as well in midweek, they could find themselves dropping two places unless they can pick up a result
