Gillingham celebrate Curtis Weston's equaliser against Crewe at the Alexandra Stadium in League 2 on Saturday (picture by Barry Goodwin)

by Luke Cawdell

Curtis Weston's long distance effort earned Gillingham a point from their League 2 trip to Crewe.

The Gills trailed at the break by a single goal at Crewe thanks to a 20th minute own goal from Tony Sinclair.

Just nine minutes after the re-start and it was all-square when Weston scored his second of the season, with a shot from distance.

The clearance from Sinclair, who was making his first appearance since November, was sliced into the back of his own net to give Crewe the advantage.

Sinclair was only on after replacing Simon King who, just 17 minutes into his first competitive start since May 2009, limped off with a thigh injury.

King had replaced injured Matt Lawrence in Gillingham's only change to their starting line-up from that which beat Rotherham on Tuesday.

Andy Hessenthaler's side had dominated possession in the opening minutes of the match but were thankful to a good save from Alan Julian, as he denied Danny Shelley with his legs, after the midfielder attempted to finish off a counter-attack on Gills' goal.

The Gills were unable to test home keeper Rhys Taylor after a succession of shots went wide.

Kevin Maher, Danny Jackman and Curtis Weston all failed to find the target in the opening 45 minutes with efforts at goal.

Gillingham made a positive start to the second half with Cody McDonald burting through in the opening seconds and Matt Tootle clearing off the line. That was soon followed by a shot from John Nutter that went over.

The Gills were back in the game on 54 minutes when Weston latched onto a ball from Jackman and smashed in from almost 30 yards.

The game could have gone either way from that point on and Julian needed to make a good block to deny Luke Murphy on 79 minutes.

Murphy put another good effort over the bar with five minutes remaining.

Gills: Julian, Fuller, Nutter, King (Sinclair 17mins), Richards, Weston (Oli 72mins), J Payne, Jackman, Maher, McDonald (Bentley 89mins) Akinfenwa. Subs: Rooney, White, S Payne, Cronin.

Crewe: Taylor, Tootle, Westwood, Artell, Ada, Murphy, Bell, Moore, Mitchel-King, Shelley, Leitch-Smith. Subs: Phillips, Blanchett, Grant, Sarcevic, Davis, Dugdale, Powell.

Attendance: 4,012