Gillingham 2 Crewe 1: League 2 match report from Priestfield Stadium as Tom Nichols and Aiden O’Brien score in Gills win and manager Neil Harris sent off

Aiden O’Brien’s first goal for Gillingham clinched his side the points against Crewe at Priestfield.

A poor defensive clearance gifted the Gills an opening goal scored by Tom Nichols but Callum Ainley levelled soon after for Crewe. O’Brien put the home side back ahead and his 70th minute goal won the game. Manager Neil Harris was sent off late on for dissent after Oli Hawkins had a goal disallowed.

Victory for Gills leaves them 10 points clear of the League 2 drop zone.

Gillingham manager Neil Harris made a trio of changes to his starting eleven, bringing Robbie McKenzie, Alex MacDonald and Dom Jefferies back in at the expense of David Tutonda, O’Brien and George Lapslie.

The Gills were up against a side with big issues on their travels, without an away win in four months and missing three of their weekend starters on international duty. Crewe were unable to postpone an already rescheduled match - having known the date was on a week designated for international football.

Harris had called on his players to respond after a disappointing weekend showing at Walsall and wanted his men to make a fast start at Priestfield - a home ground where they had won six of their last seven matches.

Had Tom Nichols’ early cross been a bit more precise then Jefferies may well have been able to give Gillingham a perfect start. That final ball was a problem throughout the opening 45 minutes.

It wasn’t the fluid start that the Gills would have wanted and they got away with a 15th minute corner when Kelvin Mellor couldn’t get a shot away and Rio Adebisi’s close-range effort was blocked.

Gillingham were struggling to make the most of any good positions they found themselves in and were unable to test the Crewe stand-in keeper David Richards