First 45 and Gillingham created far more than us. Luckily they seemed to leave their shooting boots in Kent as often shots would sail aimlessly into the upper reaches of the North Stand, although one hit with some venom was a bit close to me in Row I which nearly woke me up!
Around the half hour mark Stewart was forced into a bright save reacting well to paw a shot from Neil Harris wide of the goal. Neil Harris you may remember, the ex-Millwall striker who famously battled back to overcome testicular cancer.
Shortly after this I was convinced Neil Young gave away a penalty when he tracked his man out wide and slid towards him as the ball was running out to the by-line. An untidy tangle of legs ensued. Young certainly never touched the ball as the angle of the ball did not deviate from the Gillingham lad so if the ref (C Penton of Sussex) didn't give a pen he would have to give a corner which was exactly what he did! A let off I think.
I was recently at a Tooting & Mitcham game and was interested to see if Gavin Grant recently signed by Gillingham from T&M would get a game but he remained on the bench. Fobi-Edusei up front for the Gills was terrible and hauled off at half time, he really did not look up for it. He didn't even have a name on his shirt!
HT: 0-0 (Half Time was punctuated by a spectacularly rubbish 'band' playing Christmas-like ditties on the pitch. Hangover or not they really were bad! I couldn't do better though so perhaps I had better shut up.)
2nd half started off with more of the same. Just after the hour mark Callum Hart went to sleep in the left back position allowing the pacy and skilful Matthew Jarvis to cut-back for the oncoming Harris to open the scoring.
5 minutes later and possibly slightly against the run of play, Hayter levelled things up. Capitalising on some hesitant defending from the Gill's centre half Hayter took a touch and finished with his left peg with great aplomb.
This was now a different game. A couple of good chances fell to Fletcher but he could not score in his 13th appearance of the season. That is a bit harsh maybe as he has actually been playing ok, but his goal scoring stats have always been atrocious as we all know.
Final quarter we were well on top. A draw would probably have been a fair result, but some tremendous perseverance from Hayter resulted in a pull back from the left for Andrew Surman to pounce and head in nearly on the line in injury time to send the North Stand into raptures.
Last minute goals are just not the same without the old South End, but the goalscorer himself got rather carried away and received a yellow for his exuberance. Good player Surman, a classic left footed midfielder who always seems to have time on the ball and always curls his passes forward like quality left-footed players seem to do.
Hayter. Brilliant finish and a brilliant assist. He is the player we could least afford to lose, but his goals along with Stock's creativity are the two most saleable assets we have. Expect the two of them to be off in January I am afraid to say. AFCB: Stewart, Hart, Young, Cooper, O'Connor, Foley, Stock, Browning, Surman, Fletcher, Hayter
Subs: Moss, Purches (on for Hart, 78), Howe (on for Cooper, 80), Rodrigues (on for Foley, 78), Pitman
Vinny Goodfield, London