THE manager of the month jinx struck again as Town suffered a second successive defeat
It’s amazing how often landing the award is followed by a dip in form.
And Lee Clark, who for the second time this season topped the League I poll ahead of kick-off in Kent, was in no mood to celebrate after his team toppled out of the play-off positions.
The results which brought the Galpharm chief the February prize show Town have what it takes to mount a challenge.
But after claiming three straight wins on the road, taking just one point from the last nine available has been hugely disappointing.
Two Simeon Jackson goals either side of Nathan Eccleston’s straight red card did for Town at Priestfield, despite a feisty challenge from the visitors.
It was far too feisty in the case of the on-loan Liverpool player.
Handed a fourth start for Town, this time on the left-hand side of midfield, the 19-year-old lasted only 25 minutes.
Having tangled with Adam Miller – and not for the first time – out on the touchline, Eccleston chased the ball infield and launched himself into an ugly challenge with right-back Stuart Lewis, who was left prostrate.
Essex referee Fred Graham immediately reached for his pocket, and Town, already trailing to Jackson’s sweetly-struck sixth-minute opener, were up against it.
They responded to the challenge with spirit, and with Lee Novak in the thick of things, might well have forced an equaliser before the break.
First, the Geordie striker pressurised Garry Richards into snatching at Anthony Pilkington’s 36th-minute cross and almost putting it through his own goal.
Then, three minutes later, Novak’s goalbound volley from another Pilkington centre cannoned off the same Gills defender, who appeared to know little about his vital block.
The hope was that Town could regroup at the interval and cancel out a shaky start to the match, which featured a fourth-minute mix-up between Neal Trotman and Alex Smithies which ended up with the keeper yellow carded for fouling Jackson 35 yards out.
But the visitors were left with a mountain to climb after Jackson, who dispatched his first goal left-footed from 20 yards after Miller blocked a Robbie Williams clearance, scampered onto Rene Howe’s flick-on and slotted his 17th of the season with his right foot just 20 seconds after the restart.
Clark reshuffled by bringing on Michael Collins for Antony Kay, then Gary Roberts for Pilkington, and finally Theo Robinson for Williams, and Town finished with an outfield 3-3-3.
And while Jackson was denied a hat trick by a great save from Smithies, who first blocked his 79th-minute shot, then scrambled back to claw it away as it looped towards goal, Clark’s men had their chances.
Click on the image below for a gallery of action from the match.
The busy Collins sent in a teasing 70th-minute cross which home keeper Alan Julian fumbled, only for the ball to be hurriedly cleared.
Then the Gills keeper blocked from Novak as he burst onto a Roberts pass in the 67th minute.
And after Rhodes forced the ball home after Trotman’s header was blocked on the line only for his effort to be disallowed because of a foul in the build-up, Roberts rapped a shot against the left-hand post from Robinson’s flick-on.
There was still time for Robinson’s penalty appeal, after he tumbled under a challenge by Gills skipper Danny Jackman, to be waved away, and for Novak’s 8th-minute shot to be blocked before Julian pushed Robinson’s follow-up drive for a corner.
Now Town, who could find themselves four points outside the play-off zone by the end of play on Tuesday, when Millwall go to Carlisle, need to dust themselves down before Saturday’s all-important home clash with leaders Norwich.
Now have your say on the match, Town's five nil mauling at Southampton and where the men in blue and white go from here in our lunchtime webchat.
It starts at 12.30pm and is easy and free to get involved. Click here to set a reminder.
