Northampton 4 Gillingham 0

GILLINGHAM manager Mark Stimson labelled Saturday?s four goal defeat at Northampton as "embarrassing".

The Gills have now gone seven games without a win after a sorry performance.

Stimson said: "It's a scoreline that's embarrassed us. We came here in good spirit after a decent week's training, we looked sharp in the warm up and it also helped with a fantastic following from the supporters.

"They came with the voices and I told the players to go out and give them something to be proud of but apart from Simon Royce I don't think there were any pluses out there.

"It was a strange one because for 40 minutes I thought the game was even and there didn't look a lot in it.

"They had a big physical presence and we knew that was going to cause us problems but after 40 minutes we thought we could go in at half-time, maybe shuffle it about a little bit and get someone else up to help Jackson, but then there were just two crazy minutes before half-time."

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The opening goal came on 44 minutes when Poul Hubertz found Jason Crowe and he finished well across Simon Royce from the edge of the box.

The lead was doubled almost immediately when Adebayo Akinfenwa headed home Andy Holt's cross from close range.

There was no respite after the break and Akinfenwa bagged his second in the 53rd minute when he collected a Hubertz pass before turning his marker easily and firing in off the post.

It was 4-0 on 64 minutes when substitute Giles Coke's shot took a deflection off Gills replacement Garry Richards and went in over Royce's head.

It could have been much worse for Gillingham who were forced to twice clear off their own line and also saw Danny Jackman's deflected free kick come back off the upright.

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Gillingham: Royce, Fuller, Bygrave (Mulligan 54mins), King, Nutter, Southall, Thurgood, Crofts, Oli (Richards 54mins), Miller (Lewis 80mins), Jackson.

Subs not used: Stillie, Griffiths.

Attendance: 4978.
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Read all the action and reaction from Sixfields in Monday's Medway Messenger.