Winner is best you can get for Gillett
SIMON Gillett described his late-minute winner as the best goal he has ever scored after it sealed victory over Gillingham.
The experienced midfielder, on loan from Nottingham Forest, found the top corner of the net with a right-footed rocket from 25 yards to give struggling City a priceless success.
“It’s a long time since I scored and that was the best of my career,” said Gillett afterwards.
“For it to be the winner made it extra special. I thought we deserved it on our first half performance, although Gillingham made it more difficult for us after the break.”
Steve Cotterilll felt Gillett was a candidate for man-of-thematch even before he scored.
“Simon did a great job as the deepest of our midfield players and it was truly a wonder goal,” said the manager.
“There will probably be a lot more ups and downs between now and the end of the season.
“We have started the game really well and some of the football we played in the first half would have been the envy of a top six team.”
Sam Baldock’s 18th goal of the season had broken the deadlock for the hosts on 27 minutes.
The skipper chested down a chip forward from Wade Elliott and hammered a perfectly struck right-footed volley past Stuart Nelson.
But Gillingham improved after a lethargic start and deservedly equalised on 65 minutes when Ade Akenfenwa headed back across goal from a right wing corner and substitute Charlie Lee shot in from close range.
It wasn’t enough to satisfy boss Peter Taylor, who said:“We cannot afford to start games like we did here.
“The first half wasn’t good enough. There are a lot of teams in this division who only start to play when they have some reason to fight back. “Bristol were much sharper than us. We improved in the second half and have lost to a tremendous goal, but I want that sort of performance for 90 minutes.
“We haven’t been like that recently and we don’t want it to become a habit. To be fair to the players, they kept going, we got a good goal and perhaps could have gone on to win at that point.”
City made a bright start, which saw Bobby Reid just fail to connect with a Baldock cut-back and Jay EmmanuelThomas fail by inches to slide in and convert a Reid cross.
Gillingham found it hard to create first half chances.
Their best effort was a fierce 51st minute shot by Cody McDonald, well smothered by Frank Fielding.