Concentration was key for Gillingham head coach Stephen Clemence after Tuesday’s game was halted by floodlight failure.
Play was stopped on 64 minutes with the League 2 match between the Gills and AFC Wimbledon goalless. The players were soon led back to the changing rooms, where the hosts took full advantage of their own facilities.
Clemence said: “It was about keeping your concentration. We took them into the gym, we did some light bike work and a few of them had a little touch of the ball with some head tennis, we tried to keep them on the move.
“We knew we would have five minutes to warm up. The main thing for them was to keep their concentration levels high, and to make sure we started properly again.
“We tried to start on the front foot and maybe try to turn Wimbledon around a bit and get them playing towards their own goal.”
With the generator firing the lights back up, it was game-on more than 20 minutes later and the Gills were quick to get into their stride in what became an open end to a match lacking goalmouth action.
The Gills won 1-0 and that goal came from a free-kick, awarded with 107 minutes on the clock.
Clemence made a big call to take their regular set-piece taker Connor Mahoney off just beforehand, replacing him with Macualey Bonne.
It proved to be an inspired substitution. Jonny Williams took over set-piece duties and fired the ball into the box where Bonne headed goalwards and Conor Masterson made sure the ball hit the net.
Clemence said: “There was a bit of talk about leaving Connor Mahoney on to take the free-kick but I just thought about the presence in the box [of Bonne] and I thought Jonny Williams was more than capable of taking the free-kick.
“It is nice to score from a set-play and I said to the boys it is amazing how many tight games are won by set-plays. It is something we need to keep working on.”.
“Macauley sets up the goal straight away and it’s not been easy for him where he has come out of the team but he has gone on and played his part.
“Everyone is going to have to play their part if we are going to be successful.
“There will be a lot more days like that, where there are going to be tight games, and we need everyone to get behind us and stay with us and I am sure we can carry on winning those tight games.”
