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April 25 2024 1.44am

Gillingham 2 - 1 Palace

Sun May 4 2003 - League

Palace lost their final match of the season, away to Gillingham 2-1, while Brighton have been relegated to the Second Division.

Match Stats

Ground: Priestfield Stadium (Attendance: 9315)

Gillingham: Brown, Southall, Ashby, Hope, Edge, Smith (Rose, 81), Spiller, Osborn (Hessenthaler, 73), Shaw (Perpetuini, 75), Nosworthy, Sidibe

Subs not used: Bartram, Leon Johnson

Bookings: Hessenthaler

Goals: Nosworthy 3, Nosworthy 5

Palace: Kolinko, Powell, Mullins, Popovic, Butterfield, Derry, Thomson, Routledge (Gray, 55), Black, Freedman, Adebola

Subs not used: Berthelin, Symons, Watson, Williams

Bookings: Black, Mullins, Powell

Goals: Freedman 30 (pen)

Referee: M J Jones (Chester)

Gillingham went two up within the first five minutes as Nayron Nosworthy capitalised on poor Palace defending to grab both goals.

He got on the end of Danny Spiller's throughball to fire past Alex Kolinko after three minutes.

Two minutes later, he doubled the lead when he put away Mamady Sidibe's pass.

On 26 minutes, Dougie Freedman volleyed wide before Palace came back into the game on the half hour mark.

He put away a penalty for his 11th goal of the season after Tommy Black had been fouled in the box.

Freedman then forced the Gills keeper into a save and Danny Butterfield fired across the face of the goal.

Gillingham could have added to their lead with a chance from Sidibe and Tony Popovic put in a good block to deny Gills player-manager Andy Hessenthaler.

Post match comments:

Steve Kember said: "We failed to compete in the first ten minutes and didn't stand up for ourselves. You know what to expect here as they are a physical side and you must match them every minute of the game.


We have missed a number 9 who gets in where it hurts and makes the most of those chances which we couldn't take today
Steve Kember

"In the first four minutes we gave them a two-goal start but from then on we ran the game.

"I felt today we had more crosses than we have had for a number of weeks but should have made more of our possession.

"We have missed a number 9 who gets in where it hurts and makes the most of those chances which we couldn't take today."

Looking back on the season, Kember added: "We've had two good cup runs this season but we have not done as well as we should have in the league.

"A lot of things have worked against us with so many injuries, but in the league we have dropped our standards in the last eight or nine games. We have thrown away some games that could've got us a play-off place."

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