Sub’s late strike icing on the cake for Lovell

ONE chance was all a delighted Steve Lovell wanted as his Gillingham side battled to a deserved victory over out-of-sorts Wycombe Wanderers.

Regan Charles-Cook’s second goal in league football made the difference, converting Brandon Hanlan’s brilliant pass across the face of goal.

That was the limit of the visitors’ creativity, but an 11th win of the season takes the Gills to 17th in League One – with Lovell now looking up, instead of down, in the table.

“We deserved at least a draw, so to nick it at the end was the icing on the cake,” he said.

“We’ve been excellent in these last three games, we’ve got two wins out of them and the results will lift the club.

“Brandon Hanlan was excellent all game. He ran them ragged and I’m pleased that he could set up the goal for his mate.

“We want our players to make positive runs into the box and Regan’s done that for the winner.”

Wycombe manager Gareth Ainsworth was disappointed with the result, but not the performance.

“We did everything but stick it in the goal and that’s the story of the game. I can’t remember them having a shot on target except the one that went in.

“If I’m being picky their lad stuck the cross in far too easily, and they’ve scored from a yard out.”

The visitors, who have moved five points clear of the relegation zone, could have led earlier had Sido Jombati not blocked Mark Byrne’s driven effort. Substitute Dean Parrett also blazed over with a speculative shot from 30 yards.

Adebayo Akinfenwa came closest to levelling for the hosts, who fell to their third straight defeat, when he twice shot at Tomas Holy from point-blank range within a minute of Charles-Cook’s winner. The Wycombe striker, who previously had two spells with the Gills, had earlier fired over from eight yards after Dominic Gape flashed his pass across the face of goal.

“I’ll never know how on earth their goalkeeper has saved those chances from Akinfenwa – I think both of them hit him on his head,” said Ainsworth.

“He’s not known anything about those and that’s sometimes the way it goes. It’s unbelievable and sums up our luck.”