Gillingham 0 Northampton Town 2: Sam Hoskins opens scoring at Priestfield in League 2 clash and Kieron Bowie adds the second

Gillingham were brought back down to earth with a league defeat to Northampton coming days after the midweek cup heroics.

Sam Hoskins was gifted an opening goal for Northampton midway through the first half and Gillingham were unable to build on their Carabao Cup win at Brentford as they conceded a second with 20 minutes left. The 2-0 defeat leaves them third from bottom in League 2.

Mikael Mandron returned to Gillingham’s starting line-up after his midweek goal at Brentford while Glenn Morris was back between the sticks.

The Gills were without a win from their previous five in the league and struggled against National North side Fylde the week before but a win at Premier League Brentford on the Tuesday would have done the players’ confidence wonders.

Gillingham certainly looked like they had a bit of confidence about them midway through the half but so often the promising forward play ended abruptly.

The visitors had the better of the early chances with Morris saving from Shaun McWilliams in the first minute and dealing with a long-range effort from Ben Fox.

Northampton’s opener was all about Gills’ sloppy play. Will Wright played a ball forward that was cut out by Hoskins, who still had much to do, but as he surged forward neither Wright or Stuart O’Keefe put pressure on the player and he was allowed the chance to guide a powerful shot into the roof of the net, his 13th of the campaign coming in the 27th minute.

The Gills didn’t look like adding to their six-goal tally for the season, ending the half without a shot on target and just one towards goal, Hakeeb Adelakun with a shot that curled the wrong way.

Goalkeeper Jake Turner came on for the Gills with five minutes of the half remaining after Morris went down holding