Gillingham 1 Peterborough United 2: Bristol Street Motors Group D South match report
Gillingham used Tuesday night’s EFL Trophy match to get valuable minutes into some of their players and performed well despite being beaten.
Peterborough took the lead against the run of play through Ricky-Jade Jones and led 1-0 at the break after an impressive first 45 from the Gills. A super strike from Bradley Ihonvien doubled the lead with 15 minutes left. Elliott Nevitt scored a deserved stoppage-time goal for the hosts.
Gillingham manager Mark Bonner made nine changes to the team which started their weekend league game, using the match to bring players back from injury and others who needed game-time.
There were welcome starts for Bradley Dack and Ethan Coleman - both making their first appearances of the season. Fulham loan keeper Luca Ashby-Hammond was also in the team for the visit of Trophy holders Peterborough.
Teenager Alex Giles lined up at the back alongside Max Ehmer, the Gills captain permitted to play despite his weekend dismissal. He’ll serve his suspension in the league game at Doncaster on Saturday.
Ehmer had youth player Harry Webster on the other side of him, at right-back.
Last season’s winners named seven changes from their League 1 weekend starting XI.
Dack floated around upfront alongside Josh Andrews and didn’t take long to try his luck, firing over from 25 yards with five minutes on the clock.
Dack was in the thick of most things, taking free-kicks and corners too.
Despite a positive start from the Gills they found themselves a goal down after 12 minutes as a decisive move forward saw Chris Conn-Clarke cross to the near post where Jones finished past Ashby-Hammond.
Webster forced visiting keeper Nicholas Bilokapic into a save on the stretch midway through the half after linking up well with