Gillingham 1 Bournemouth 1

ANDREW CROFTS rescued a point for Gillingham on Saturday with a stoppage time equaliser against Bournemouth.

The midfielder headed home a 93rd minute goal to level the League 1 match after the Gills had under-performed during the opening half.

Gills manager Ronnie Jepson was relieved to see his side end a three game losing sequence but couldn’t hide his disappointment at the first half showing.

He said: “We left it late and it was a good goal by (Andrew) Crofts but if I tried to pick the bones out of the first half performance I’d be there all night explaining because it was poor.”

Bournemouth went into the match without a win on the road and struggling at the wrong end of the table, but the side were more than a match for Gillingham, which came as no surprise to Jepson.

“I tried to drum that into the boys all week,” he said. “Everyone thought Bournemouth would be an easy game but we saw them against Nottingham Forest and they beat them 2-0.

“They’ve got players like (Darren) Anderton, (Steve) Fletcher and (James) Hayter who are good players and we knew that and hopefully the players will take heed from that and step it up a touch in the next game.”

The home side were trailing 1-0 at the break after Sam Vokes had caught Gillingham on the counter-attack to score for the visitors.

A much brighter Gillingham side appeared for the second half and the two teams produced plenty of goal scoring opportunities.

Visiting keeper Neil Moss had rarely been troubled in the opening half, but he was forced into making several spectacular saves as Gary Mulligan, Matt Jarvis and Danny Spiller were all denied, while Duncan Jupp also struck the bar.

As Gillingham attacked in numbers they were often exposed and substitute Brett Pitman twice hit the post.

But a corner from captain Michael Flynn deep in the game finally saw Gillingham level as Crofts headed from close range to deny Bournemouth a first away win of the season.

Gills: Brill, Jupp, Jackman, Flynn, Cox, Sancho, Crofts, Bentley, Mulligan, Ndumbu-Nsungu (Spiller 45), Jarvis. Subs Not Used: Chorley, Johnson, Pouton, Savage. Att: 6,296.