TOWN SHACKLE TITLE CHASERS
SWINDON have struggled for goals and points of late and while they didn’t find the net at Gillingham, manager Luke Williams was impressed with his side’s resilience as they secured a share of the spoils.
The Robins arrived at Priestfield off the back of consecutive 1-0 defeats and rarely threatened to end the goal drought, with the hosts doing most of the pressing.
Gillingham striker Rory Donnelly came closest to breaking the deadlock when his lob struck the post in the early stages, while Swindon goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux proved an imposing obstacle for much of the contest.
Williams’ side still have an issue to solve in the final third but his charges were not found wanting at promotion-chasing Gillingham and the manager believes it could prove to be a valuable performance.
“All things considered, it’s a great point,” he said.
“There has been a question mark over whether the players can get anything out of these games and that was a good answer from this group.
“I would say it’s impossible to come to Gillingham without having some moments where you have to ride your luck.
“We created one or two chances ourselves but a point is about right. I don’t think there will be a harder place for us to get a point this season.
“They’re desperate to play for the club and fight for each other. When it’s not easy and you’ve got your mates around you, you feel a responsibility towards them and you drive yourself on and that’s what got them the point against Gillingham.
“I think if you look at the performance of those boys they have got a hunger to be out there but they showed some real quality as well.”
Donnelly came within inches of opening the scoring inside the opening five minutes, lobbing Vigouroux before watching the ball bounce back off the post – a miss that would prove costly for the home side.
Bradley Dack hit the sidenetting on the half-hour mark shortly before Vigouroux saved Josh Wright’s powerful effort, and at the other end Jonathan Obika’s effort was well blocked by Max Ehmer on the stroke of half time.
Dack’s cut-back flashed across the six-yard box after he blocked a Yaser Kasim clearance and darted to the byline midway through the second half, and Donnelly then headed a Doug Loft cross straight at the goalkeeper Vigouroux.
The ever-impressive Dack continued to threaten and he found John Egan late on but the defender fired just wide of the post. And Gillingham coach Steve Lovell conceded a draw felt much more like a loss, having watched his players spurn chance after chance against a side short on confidence.
“It’s disappointing,” said Lovell. “In the dressing room afterwards it felt as if we lost the game.
“When you have so much possession, so much of the game and don’t turn it into three points, it’s frustrating.
“First half we started very well, created a number of good opportunities and Rory hit the post having done everything right. He says the wind took it, of course he’s a centre-forward and they like to make excuses, but he’s an honest player.
“It was a matter of time before we’d get another good opportunity but it just didn’t happen for us.
“You can say perhaps in the final third we didn’t have the cutting edge. We haven’t scored all these goals this season because of a lack of quality. Some days you have games where it doesn’t go for you.
“We played Blackpool last week and didn’t look like scoring, here we had a number of opportunities but it didn’t happen for us. That’s
football.”