Shrewsbury 7 Gillingham 0

Gillingham?s good recent form was left in tatters after being thrashed at Shrewsbury on Saturday.

Four first half goals left them beaten and three more in the second half left them embarrassed as Gillingham failed to cope with Shrewsbury set-pieces and attacking class.

A horrendous first 45 minutes for Gillingham saw them head to the break four goals down after Shrewsbury ran riot on home turf.

Despite an evenly matched opening period, the home side took a 27th minute lead, when Michael Jackson headed in from Ben Davies? corner kick.

From that point on Shrewsbury dominated and three minutes later the lead was doubled as Davies put David Hibbert in on goal and he curled a shot in from 20 yards.

A clash of heads between Grant Holt and Garry Richards led to the Gills man missing the next seven minutes while receiving treatment and he returned with his side?s hopes in tatters.

Davies struck goal number three with a 35 yard free-kick which beat everyone and floated past a despairing Royce on 42 minutes.

Three minutes later and it was four when Davies again swung in a corner, Jackson turned it goalwards and fellow defender Graham Coughlan was there to finish.

Only a flying block from Richards denied a fifth, after finally returning to the field, but by then it was all but over.

Number five wasn?t long in coming, however, when seven minutes into the second half Shane Cansdell-Sherriff struck after Gillingham failed to deal with another set-piece.

Before the hour it was 6-0 as Simon King?s trip on Grant Holt led to a penalty and the Shrewsbury man picked himself up and scored from the spot.

Another set-piece led to the seventh on 87 minutes, when Davies whipped an effort over Royce and into the far corner, to equal the home club?s 53 year high-scoring league record.

Manager Mark Stimson put the defeat down to his players' inability to deal with Shrewsbury?s set-pieces.

He said: ?We started off nice and bright in the first 10 or 15 minutes. I thought it was going to be a really attractive game but it wasn?t to be.

?We have to get over it and get on with it. It?s never happened to me before, with this many goals conceded. I?ve done it to a few teams and it?s a good feeling but to lose like that is a horrible feeling.

?We said at half-time we need to do better at set pieces mainly because that?s where a lot of the problems came from.

?We conceded at least four of the goals from set pieces and just to sum up our day the last one was laughable. The referee had his hand up for an in-direct free kick and its gone straight into the top corner.

?I thought that to score from an indirect free-kick you have to touch it.

?The boys will be down, really down, but it?s about how we get over it now.?

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Gills: Royce, Fuller, Nutter, King, Richards, Miller (Bentley 69mins), Weston, Daniels, McCammon (Crofts 58mins), Jackson, Oli (Berry 50mins). Subs not used: Lewis, Julian.

Shrewsbury: Daniels, Jackson (Langmead 69mins), Coughlan, Hibbert (Hindmarch 78mins), Herd, Davies, Holt, Tierney, Cansdell-Sheriff, Thornton, McIntyre (Ashton 85mins). Subs not used: Garner, Humphrey.

Attendance:5,319