City's home comforts continued with another excellent performance at the LNER, as a 3-0 victory over Gillingham took them to four wins from four home league games this season. Gareth Ainsworth’s side arrived in fine form but couldn't live with York's dynamic attacking play, and had the woodwork and some wasteful finishing by the home side to thank for only finding themselves a goal behind at the break. Any hopes Gills harboured of a comeback were dashed when their substitute Zane Albarus was sent off in the second half, and fully extinguished when two quickfire York goals followed soon after.
The tone was set early on, with City taking the lead less than two minutes in. Joe Felix, reintroduced to the line-up to replace Jeff King in the only change from last weekend’s defeat at Chesterfield, received a long ball upfield from Alfie McNally on the right flank. Felix cut the ball back to Ollie Pearce, who sent a looping cross that found Joe Grey on the edge of the six yard box. Grey's effort seemed initially to be mishit, striking the ground and looping upwards, to the extent that some home fans groaned at a missed opportunity. Somehow, though, the trajectory of the ball saw it bounce again just inside the post to put York 1-0 up.
The goal seemed to jolt Gillingham into life, and they enjoyed a subsequent spell of pressure, causing occasional anxiety for the City defence with their high press. The selection of Felix was paying dividends for York, however: Lindsey said after the match that he had picked Felix partly to nullify the attacking threat of James Brophy, and when Felix beat Brophy to the ball after a Gillingham corner, it led to another chance for Grey on the counter. Grey's touch into the area was a little too heavy, though, and Gills keeper Ollie Wright was able to come out and smother the ball. The visitors then lost centre-forward Will Goodwin to injury, replacing him with midfielder Zane Albarus and pushing Ronan Hale up front. The removal of Goodwin perhaps made City's life easier as it removed any real physical presence from the Gillingham attack.
While the visiting side were having their fair share of possession, all the chances that came in the first half fell to York. Ollie Banks played a perfectly timed chipped pass that set Pearce through on goal, but goalkeeper Wright reacted well to block Pearce’s close range strike. Soon after, Alex Newby twice went agonisingly close to adding to his six goals this season. His first attempt came when he cut inside from the left flank, leaving Eli King on the deck, before hitting a powerful strike that rattled the far post. King seemed to pick up an injury in the process, leading to Gills’ second enforced change as Garath McCleary came on in his place. Newby then had another golden opportunity to increase City’s lead when Alex Hunt’s cross found him on the edge of the six yard box, but his delicate side-footed effort crept past the post.
City were finding different ways to open up the visitors’ defence, not just via intricate passing moves but also by going direct when needed. A long ball from Mark Kitching found Hunt in the Gillingham half with no opposition players remotely close to him, but while Hunt did well to bring the ball down and carry it into the area, his left-footed effort curled onto the far post and Pearce’s follow-up was blocked by Albarus. Although York went in at half-time a goal to the good, the lead could easily have been greater, and the sense that they might come to rue missed chances was hard to shake.
Whatever Ainsworth’s instructions for the first half had been, the Gillingham game plan hadn’t worked, so a change of approach seemed likely after the break. The key difference seemed to be a greater intensity to their play, which manifested itself in a number of flying challenges, several of which were penalised by referee Scott Oldham. They did go close when McCleary ran into the box and found space between Hunt and Fallowfield to get a shot away, but the ex-Jamaica international’s effort was poked wide of the far post.
Lindsey shook things up with a slightly earlier substitution than usual, introducing Jovan Malcolm in place of Alex Newby with less than an hour played. Malcolm took the centre-forward spot, with Pearce dropping back into Newby’s role, and offered a target for City when they opted to go long. There was a sight of goal for Malcolm soon after he entered the fray, when Hunt touched a Fallowfield long ball into his path, but his low strike from the edge of the area was saved by Wright.
Ainsworth looked to impact the game from the bench himself with a triple substitution soon after, but the trio had not been on the pitch long when Gillingham’s overly physical approach caught up with them and Albarus saw red. His second yellow was given for a clumsy challenge on Pearce: it looked a little soft, but Albarus was perhaps the fall guy after referee Oldham lost patience with the visitors’ persistent fouling.
York’s second goal arrived five minutes after the dismissal, and was the result of some fine centre-forward play by Malcolm. Collecting the ball from Boyes’ pass with his back to goal, the loanee used his strength to shrug off the attention of Jack Daley before sending a powerful effort past Wright from just outside the area. It was Malcolm’s third goal since joining from Stevenage, and the first not scored with his head.
The win was put beyond all doubt four minutes later when City added a third. A Hunt corner was blocked by Harry Waldock, then poked further clear by Brophy, but it fell to Boyes. After bringing it down with his chest, Boyes hit a half volley that sailed through the box and into the bottom right corner, in what looked to be a similar strike to his first goal for the club against Bristol Rovers last month. Upon closer inspection, though, Pearce had added a vital touch, and will no doubt be glad to claim the goal as his third of the campaign.
There was still time for Gillingham to threaten a consolation goal when Brophy capitalised on a mix-up between York substitutes Frankie Maguire and Jeff King, intercepting the ball then bringing it forward and hitting an effort that curled past McNally and struck the angle of post and bar. But City held on to the clean sheet, and claimed a second successive comfortable home win against an in-form side, having swept aside Swindon with similar ease two weeks earlier.
The result leaves York’s record from the first eight games looking curiously uneven, as a 100% winning record at the LNER stands in contrast to four winless games on their travels. City have two weeks before their next game, a home fixture against struggling Northampton: while preparing for that game will of course take precedence, there may also be some logic in using the break to work out why such dominant home displays have been hard to replicate on the road. The issue isn’t unique to City, but instead seems prevalent across League Two this season, with half of the teams in the league still without an away win. For now, though, York can take pride in having worked out half of the equation for success: how to make their home ground a fortress.
