To slate-grey north Kent, and the latest rickety stop on the Leicester redemption tour. If Kent is the garden of England, then Gillingham is the unloved bit round the back of the garden shed, consisting of a pile of bricks, a broken child’s tricycle and several soaking cardboard boxes. For Brendan Rodgers’s ailing side, this felt like the perfect spot for an ambush.
In the event disaster was averted, but little else. Kelechi Iheanacho delivered the goods early in the second half, maintaining a remarkable scoring record in the FA Cup. This was his 16th goal, moving him 15th on the all-time competition list. And though there were few alarms for the 2021 winners as they saw out their slender lead, there was precious little to cheer them either: lots of pointless possession, a distinct lack of ideas and numerous abortive diagonal passes. A more confident opponent might have caused them real problems.
Gillingham, alas, are not that. They are bottom of League Two and have scored just seven times. Their top scorer in the league with two goals, the centre-half Elkan Baggott, is injured. The manager, Neil Harris, was already unpopular before getting involved in an angry confrontation with a fan at the Salford game last month. Attendances are in decline, recruitment has been shambolic and a second consecutive relegation, ending an unbroken 73-year run in the Football League, is a real possibility.
But here they had a few intangibles on their side. The whiff of Premier League glamour had swelled numbers to around double their usual size: a crowd of 8,600 and a live BBC One lunchtime audience. A strong run to the Carabao Cup last-16, beating Brentford along the way, had given them a template. They had knowledge of the conditions, a slightly spongy pitch and a wicked wind whipping in off the Medway. But most of all, they had a new year, a new owner and a new start.
A US flag fluttered in the Rainham End as Brad Galinson and his family took a rapturous lap of the pitch before the game. Since taking over the club shortly before Christmas, the Florida property tycoon has been exalted as a benevolent liberator by Gillingham fans, releasing their beloved club from the stultifying grip of its former owner, Paul Scally. There have been promises of “aggressive” January spending. Nobody can really say for certain how this goes. But it does at least feel like a corner has been turned.
And there was plenty here to cheer them. Nothing as outlandishly decadent as a goal, of course, but plenty of industry and purpose, fleeting spells of pressure, discipline and daring. Hakeeb Adelakun on the wing showed glimpses of the promise that attracted Crystal Palace and West Ham to him as a youngster. Jake Turner had a fine game in goal. So too the pugnacious Alex MacDonald, a wide midfielder built like a brick toilet and with a first touch to match.
For almost an hour, Leicester struggled. The wind was swirling and gusty, the Gillingham block nine and often 10 men deep. Nampalys Mendy tried to direct the traffic, and the rookie defenders Lewis Brunt and Kasey McAteer tried to inject some energy, but really Leicester had little to offer. Iheanacho curled a shot just wide towards the end of a first half in which Jamie Vardy had just nine touches.
Gillingham started the second half brightly, playing with the wind and enjoying chances through Dom Jefferies and Adelakun. But it would be the last taste of hope before the plate was whipped away. Two minutes after Adelakun slammed a shot just wide, a deep cross by Youri Tielemans found its way through to McAteer at the far post. As Turner pounced on him, McAteer cut the ball back for Iheanacho to lash it in: an ugly goal to varnish an ugly game.
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Not that Gillingham will have too many complaints: the Cup money will come in extremely handy, and with Kenny Jackett and Andy Hessenthaler added to the backroom staff, there is a curious sensation of progress, perhaps even optimism. “Proud of the team, proud of the football club,” Harris said. “It just shows the potential that the Galinsons have invested in.” Leicester, meanwhile, will simply have to get better than this.
