Gillingham 0 Crewe 3

Gillingham are staring League 1 relegation square in the face after a miserable 3-0 home defeat to fellow strugglers Crewe on Saturday.

Manager Mark Stimson labelled it a game the Gills must not lose, but no other result looked likely after the visitors took an early lead and their cause wasn't helped by the second half dismissal of Kevin Maher.

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The Gills fell behind after just nine minutes when Dean Morgan's through ball found Tom Pope who dinked the ball past keeper Simon Royce.

Adam Miller came desperately close to an equaliser for Gillingham three minutes after the break but his fine effort from the edge of the box crashed back off the upright.

Within two minutes Crewe were two up after Nicky Maynard turned in Gary Roberts' cross and any hopes of a comeback ended on 57 minutes when Maher was sent off on his home debut following an ugly two-footed challenge on Crewe's Kenny Lunt.

Andrew Crofts forced a superb save out of keeper Ben Williams but there was no way back for the home side.

The misery was complete on 76 minutes when Pope's ball ripped the Gillingham defence apart and Morgan curled home past Royce from the edge of the box.

Manager Mark Stimson said: "It was a very bad day and we weren�t expecting that.

"The first 10 minutes of the game were quite even, we wanted to go out and get three points. If we didn�t win we had to go out and make sure we didn�t get beat but we didn�t do that.

"It was a bad day at the office and we�ve just got to look forward and move on now.

"Next week's match against Bournemouth is going to be a must win game. If we get three points it can set the rest of the games up but if we don�t then it will be a real hard battle to stay in this division. That�s something we desperately want to do."

Gillingham: Royce, Fuller, Bygrave, King, Nutter, Bentley (Oli 64mins), Maher, Crofts, Miller, Facey (Griffiths 64mins), Mulligan (Jackson 81mins).
Subs not used: Stillie, Clohessy.
Attendance: 4,956.

Get all the action and reaction from Priestfield in Monday's Medway Messenger.