Gillingham’s head coach Stephen Clemence has explained why he took his only striker off at Wimbledon when they were a man down and a goal down.
Oli Hawkins had started the game as the main man up top for the Gills but things quickly unraveled at Wimbledon as the home side went ahead and defender Conor Masterson was sent off.
Up against it for the second half, Clemence opted for mobility up top over height and hoped attacking midfielders Jonny Williams and Conor Mahoney would be better suited than big striker Hawkins, who was substituted.
It was a decision that left some fans confused but Clemence explained his thinking.
He said: “Oli has a lot of strengths but one of them is not chasing around the football pitch when you’ve got 10 men and are playing against 11.
“I know Oli is a threat in the box but we had to make sure we stayed in the game.
“The plan at half-time was to go 5-2-2 because we went 4-4-1 at the end of the first half and they put five up against our back four. If we carried on like that the score could have been a lot bigger.
“We went 5-2-2 and we felt Connor and Jonny would run about and try and put some pressure against their back three. That was two versus three, then everywhere else we were man-on-man all over the park.
“It is never ideal when you’re not playing with a striker, but that’s what we felt we needed to do. We got through the first 15 minutes and you think ‘can we get through the next 15 and be in the game?’ Then maybe we could make changes to go for it at the end.”
Clemence only turned to his substitute strikers Ashley Nadesan and Josh Walker later in the game. Wimbledon scored a second on 65 minutes and it finished 2-0.
Gills’ head coach added: “Unfortunately it didn’t work out, but the good thing is that Oli had a bit of a breather and he’ll be ready to go this weekend.”
With central defender Masterson suspended this Saturday, Clemence could revert to a four-man defensive unit rather than the 3-4-3 wing-back approach that he’s been preferring. It was a switch in formation that helped the Gills recover from 1-0 down against Tranmere last time out at Priestfield.
