Gillingham 1 Forest Green Rovers 1: League 2 match report from Priestfield as Oli Hawkins scores his first of the season but Callum Jones levels

Oli Hawkins scored his first goal of the season for Gillingham but their relegation-threatened visitors took a share of the points.

The opening half at Priestfield lacked excitement and it was a disallowed goal for Macauley Bonne that got the Gills going against Forest Green Rovers with an hour gone. Hawkins’ towering header put Gillingham in front but Callum Jones levelled as the visitors finished strongly.

Reaction: Nervy Gills disappoint head coach

Gillingham knew that a win would have been good enough to return to the play-off places but the strugglers denied them victory at Priestfield.

New signing Remeao Hutton started the match, replacing Robbie McKenzie as one of three changes to the team which started the previous week at Accrington. He got several early crosses in but couldn’t find the mark.

Macaulay Bonne had replaced Tom Nichols to play alongside Hawkins in attack while George Lapslie was chosen ahead of Tim Dieng in midfield.

With three straight wins behind them in the league, the Gills were well fancied to make it four against a side sitting bottom of the table, without a win since the end of October and having just sacked their head coach.

Interim boss Dan Connor – the goalkeeper coach – was chosen to try and inject some life into Rovers’ flagging fortunes but neither team managed to find their spark in the first 45 minutes.

The best the Gills could muster was a couple of headers wide from Hawkins and Bonne while a shot from Rovers’ Callum Jones failed to trouble keeper Jake Turner at the other end but was at least on target.

On a chilly day at Priestfield, it wasn’t the kind of game needed but in a fixture between the division’s two lowest scorers, it perhaps wasn’t surprising.

The bar was set pretty