Gillingham 0 Northampton 1

AN EARLY goal by Northampton's Daniel Jones was enough for the visitors to take all three points at Priestfield on Saturday.

The only goal came in the third minute when Simon King handled on the edge of the box and Jones swept the resulting free-kick past Simon Royce.

Gillingham had a decent penalty shout when Gary Mulligan appeared to be pulled back in the area but referee Andy D'Urso waved away the protests.

Both sides hit the woodwork - Adam Miller struck the bar with a fine snap shot for the Gills while, before that, Jason Crowe saw his effort come back off the post.

Gills manager Mark Stimson said: "After last week?s fantastic result we looked at the two home games, spoke about it and thought that if we can get maximum points we would be in a very strong position but it wasn?t to be.

"I can?t really complain about the lack of effort it was just maybe that little bit of quality and we couldn?t get that shot away at the goalkeeper.

"We had a couple of decent efforts but their defenders put some good blocks in and we got done by a top class free-kick that definitely wouldn?t look out of place in the Premier League."

~ More pictures from Priestfield >>>

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Gillingham: Royce, Southall, Cox, King (Bygrave 70mins), Nutter, Bentley, Crofts, Rocastle (Thurgood 67mins), Miller, Facey (Griffiths 67mins), Mulligan.

Subs Not Used: Stillie, Cumbers.

Attendance: 5,579.
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See Monday's Medway Messenger for all the action and reaction from Priestfield.