Walsall 2 Gillingham 1

GILLINGHAM were beaten 2-1 at Walsall on Saturday despite Andrew Crofts' fantastic late strike.

Crofts thundered in a goal-of-the-season contender from 30 yards in stoppage-time, but it was too little too late for Mark Stimson's side.

The Gills boss was critical of his strikers after the match and was left in awe of Walsall's veteran striker Tommy Mooney.

He said: "Mooney made the difference. He made one and scored one and he was worth all the money that Walsall pay him. If he was playing for us then we would have gone home winners.

"For the first 20 minutes we were very good - it was just a case of not getting a shot away at goal or testing the keeper. Some of our play in that spell was first-class.

"There were people refusing to get onto the end of some quality balls. For some reason our strikers didn't want to get in there."

Walsall took the lead against the run of play in the 28th minute when Mooney nipped in front of Nicky Southall to head in Troy Deeney's cross.

Edrissa Sonko should have doubled the lead six minutes after the break but he failed to test Derek Stillie from a great position.

But he made no mistake on 72 minutes when he collected Mooney's pass and scuffed his finish beyond the Gills keeper.

The visitors rarely threatened before Crofts's thunderbolt. New signing Garry Richards made his Gillingham debut as a 62nd minute replacement for Ian Cox.

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Gillingham: Stillie, Southall, Bygrave, Cox (Richards 62mins), Nutter, Bentley (Cogan 45mins), Crofts, Thurgood, Miller, Facey (Griffiths 45mins), Mulligan.

Subs Not Used: Kiely, Rocastle.

Attendance: 4,914.
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See Monday's Medway Messenger for all the action and reaction from the Bescot Stadium.