Match Report: Gillingham 0-2 Port Vale
Gillingham 0-2 Port Vale: the Valiants secured an excellent away win over Gillingham thanks to well-taken goals from AJ Leitch-Smith and captain Carl Dickinson.
Rob Page made one change to his starting eleven with Ryan McGivern coming in for Sam Kelly as Vale reverted to a 3-5-2 formation.
After a quiet opening, the game exploded into life when the Valiants scored twice in two minutes. First, top-scorer AJ Leitch-Smith produced a fine finish from Ben Purkiss’ cross and two minutes later, Purkiss provided a second assist as he set up Dickinson for a second. Those goals understandably knocked the stuffing out of the home side and Michael O’Connor came close to a third.
However, the Gills did come back into the game and Vale were fortunate when Dickinson’s high challenge on Oshilaja was not ruled a foul when it looked a clear penalty. Then the Vale had a chance to make the game safe on the brink of half-time but Leitch-Smith was flagged offside as Purkiss put the ball in the net.
In the second-half, Vale had a further chance to stretch their lead through Purkiss before Richard Duffy cleared off the line from Bradley Dack’s effort. Then it was Jak Alnwick to the rescue with a fine save on the 75 minute mark.
In the closing moments, Anthony Grant was seemingly shown a second yellow card but amazingly the ref failed to send the midfielder off. However, despite that, the Valiants held on to record an excellent away win and record a second clean sheet in a row.
Full-time: Gillingham 0-2 Port Vale
Vale: Alnwick, Purkiss, Duffy, McGivern, Streete, Dickinson, Grant, O’Connor, Foley (Birchall), Dodds (Moore), Leitch-Smith (Hooper)
Subs: Boot, Yates, Brown, Kelly
Attendance: 5,887 (153 away)