JET flies to the rescue for the Gills

GILLINGHAM forward Jay Emmanuel-Thomas inspired a thrilling comeback to sicken Shrewsbury manager Mickey Mellons, who watched his side surrender a comfortable two-goal lead to end up with nothing.

Mellons could not believe his eyes after two goals from Louis Dodds put Town in control with the visitors having goalkeeper Jonathon Bond to thank for keeping the score down at the interval.

But EmmanuelThomas scored a brace of his own to put The Gills back on track, with Max Ehmer grabbing an injury-time winner as Justin Edinburgh celebrated his side’s emphatic turnaround.

“It is a sickener, a real hammer blow from being in such control,” said Mellons. “It is disappointing to have a two-goal lead at home only for us not to manage the game properly and concede three goals. It was heartbreaking to see the last goal nestle in the back of the net.

“You have to believe that every moment is dangerous but we didn’t do that.

“It’s frustrating because we should have moved on through the gears and saw the result over the line so it is a tough one to to take for everyone involved.”

Dodds put Town ahead with a delightful 17th-minute strike from the edge of the box. Good work from Junior Brown led to Town’s second, skipping to the byline on 31 minutes before finding Dodds, who slammed home the rebound from his shot.

Bond tipped Ivan Toney’s header away from the top corner when he met Brown’s cross soon after, then denied Dodds a first-half hat-trick by thwarting him from close range just before the break.

Gillingham reduced the deficit on 59 minutes when persistent pressure led to EmmanuelThomas heading home Bradley Dack’s cross.

And the powerful striker’s stunning 73rd-minute screamer found the net to put the sides level before Ehmer struck to steal the points at the death.

“I can’t believe we managed to snatch a victory so late on,” said Edinburgh.

“Credit to the players, in the second half they showed a resilience and togetherness and those are great traits to have, but we don’t want to be relying on that every week. We’ve got to nip the softness we have in the bud.

“We are too nice to play against and we have to get back to basics with our defending and show a real win to win throughout the game.”