Gillingham 'nailed' game-plan in draw against Chesterfield

Elliott Nevitt put the well-drilled visitors in front on 14 minutes and they held out until 77 minutes when Will Grigg swept home Ryan Colclough’s low cross.

The draw is Gillingham’s sixth in a row and fourth since Ainsworth took charge after leaving Shrewsbury Town. As for Chesterfield, they ar 10th in the table and six points off the play-offs with five games remaining, starting with the visit of Fleetwood Town on Saturday.

“I am really pleased with the boys,” he said. “This is a really tough place to come. We had a formation but we changed just before kick-off because I thought Chesterfield had changed but they hadn’t so we changed back to our original plan and the boys adapted so well.

"We really took the first-half to them and I thought we were the better team. I thought we controlled the ball better and we had some great chances. We frustrated them, we really did. We nailed our shape, nailed what we wanted to do against them and it worked really well.”

The Spireites applied the pressure after the break although they did not test goalkeeper Glenn Morris enough. Grigg’s equaliser gave them hope of securing a much-needed victory in the race for the play-offs and Colclough nearly volleyed in a late winner but it wasn’t to be.

Ainsworth continued: “in the second-half, with their fans behind them, we soaked up a lot of pressure and just for that tiny moment we would have had a great win tonight. They did put pressure on us, I am not going to rose-tint this and say we were perfectly calm. They had some chances. I thought Chesterfield really came at us well in the second-half. It was a cracking game. I thought we could have nicked it at the end. They (Chesterfield) have been together three years and that is what you get, that style of play, that real togetherness, I am just starting but I am really pleased with what I am seeing."

There was a heart-in-mouth moment in the second-half when Joe Gbode got the wrong side of Ash Palmer and the Blues defender dragged him back but the Gillingham man opted to continue towards goal rather than go down which would have given referee Martin Woods a big decision to make.

Ainsworth added: “I think if Joe Gbode is not so honest there could have been a red card pulled because he was clean through and he was getting dragged back but his tenacity and willingness to stay on his feet was brilliant to see.”