Harrogate Town opinion: Nature of Notts County defeat hard to fathom after Gillingham FC success

Print deadlines being what they are, I was unable to capture Harrogate Town’s 5-1 mauling of Gillingham on Easter Monday in time to catch last week’s paper. So please forgive me, dear reader, whilst I indulge in the recollection of one of the highlights of the club’s time in the Football League so far.

Due to a clash between the blue and white of the visitors and Town’s customary yellow and black (no, me neither), Gillingham had opted for a dayglo pink and black number. Squint and it was like watching 20 highlighter pens run around. I found myself wishing I’d brought my sunglasses.

An expectant bank holiday crowd of over 3,000 had turned up with high hopes after the dismantling of Bradford, but ended up witnessing yet another flat first-half performance against a visiting team that dominated possession and looked sharper all round.

If there was a positive to be found, it was that Town went in at the break only one goal in arrears. A Stockport or a Mansfield would have been out of sight after 30 minutes but, not surprisingly for the lowest scorers in the division averaging less than a goal a game, Gillingham lacked a cutting edge in front of goal.

Let’s not mention the fact they hadn’t lost a game in which they’d opened the scoring since January 2022 and also had one of the stingiest defences in the league.

I’d been struck by the large number of fans making the long journey from Kent and had already remarked how loud and boisterous they were compared to Bradford, having heard various renditions on the theme of rubbish ground, no fans on the way in along the ginnel.

I didn’t remember it being like this when Gillingham were the visitors last season and, let’s face it, they can hardly talk.

It took me until the second half to realise the away terraces were swollen by an influx of York City fans, looking for a game to attend after the 24-hour postponement of their match at Halifax, and choosing to re-route and watch North Yorkshire’s finest instead. This is, after all, the closest they’ll get to the Football League this season.

That of course explained why the Kop had been singing lots of anti-York songs and serenading the away fans with a chorus of ‘Going down’ in a match against a team sitting in seventh place. The York City banner at the front should have been a big clue.

By the time I’d figured all this out, 15 minutes of the second period had sneaked by with nothing much happening and it looked like it was going to be one of those days where Town let a big North Yorkshire turnout down. York City fans excepted of course.

Then, we won a free-kick. George Thomson floated it in and, in keeping with the afternoon, failed to beat the first man. ‘This is what I mean, the delivery’s been poor all…’ a frustrated friend started to exclaim, just as Thomson swung a vicious second ball in and Anthony O’Connor rose to thunder home a header at the back post.

Maybe we could scrape this one after all. What followed next beggared belief.

Town were 3-1 up inside 10 glorious minutes thanks to a brace from Matty Daly. The first was an audacious, first-time 20-yard finish as Gillingham imploded, the second a tap-in after good work by Josh March.

This was the cue for the young York lads in the away end to leave en masse (presumably once again disappointed), thus missing the best bit.

Nobody in the stadium had seen this coming, and no one could possibly foresee what happened next as Town easily saw the 90 out, bolstered by Simon Weaver's attacking substitutions.

Three minutes into the six added on, James Belshaw launched the ball forward under a high press. Three first-time touches later and the ball bounced invitingly in front of Jack Muldoon one-on-one with the keeper a good 20 yards out in front of the now mostly-Gillingham fans.

Without hesitation, the substitute lashed a swerving volley into the top right corner of the net. Blink and you missed it.

The poor Gills keeper stood rooted to the centre of his goal, not even having had a chance to set himself properly such was the speed of the strike.

Normally, this sort of thing would see the ball nestling in the leylandii high behind the goal, and maybe that was his thinking too.

Two minutes later, another substitute, Abraham Odoh, waltzed into the area and curled a glorious fifth into the far corner past the now traumatised Glenn Morris.

Everything Town touched flew in, it was Mansfield away in reverse.

What made this result even more remarkable was Saturday’s visit to Notts County, the team with simultaneously the deadliest attack and leakiest defence in the division: both goals for and against columns double that of Gillingham’s.

Despite creating as many clear-cut openings in the East Midlands, Town were unable to convert even one, due to a lack of ruthlessness and a brilliant performance by County’s goalkeeper, Luca Ashby-Hammond.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, and rather harshly, the home team clinically scored three.

With Crawley winning again anyway, seventh position now appears to be out of our reach, barring an absolute miracle. Nevermind, it’s been a decent season so far, so let’s see if we can go out on a high.