Byfield earns draw before pitch invasion
Published: 00:00, 06 May 2006
Updated: 17:57, 06 May 2006
Blackpool 3 Gillingham 3
GILLINGHAM shared six goals with Blackpool in their final game of the season at Bloomfield Road.
A pitch invasion in the final minutes cut short the entertaining match that concluded Gills' League 1 campaign.
The Kent club was always chasing the game and sloppy defending from both sides let the strikers take the limelight.
For Gillingham, it was Darren Byfield, who struck a goal in each half in what may have been his last game for the club.
Blackpool's danger man Keigan Parker also hit two goals as he was a constant menace all match.
A slow start was kicked into life on 13 minutes when Parker crossed for Matt Blinkhorn to fire past Jason Brown.
Blackpool dominated for the rest of the half and should have been two or three in front.
Gillingham managed an equaliser from Byfield on 28 minutes, however, as he bundled the ball home after Frannie Collin's effort had hit the bar.
Byfield's second put Gillingham into an unexpected lead in the second half but four minutes later it was all square again, as Parker broke free.
Parker lobbed a third goal on 69 minutes and nearly got a hat-trick with a 35yard dipping free-kick, which struck Brown's crossbar.
Michael Flynn levelled with a shot from outside the area with five minutes remaining but the crowd's intervention cut the game short.
With two minutes left, Blackpool supporters surged onto the pitch, after a five minute stoppage the referee re-started the game, only to blow the final whistle moments later in a farcical end to the season.
Gillingham: Brown, Clohessy, Jackman, Hope, Johnson, Collin (Stone 72), Flynn, Crofts, Jarvis, Byfield, Harris.
Subs Not Used: Spiller, Wallis, Grant, Mulligan.
Attendance: 8,541.
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Luke Cawdell