Blake Treble Kills Gillingham
first wolves hatrick
By J Bateman
October 30 2002
It was the Nathan Blake show last night as the striker made 1 and scored 3 as Wolves tore apart Gillingham.
A tricky game awaited Wolves tonight and for the opening 15 minutes it seemed that Wolves poor start to games would continue.
Gillingham started the better of the two and Andy Hessentaler the Gills player manager got a center in which Murray did well to clear from a Mark Saunders header , straight after Guy Ipoua headed just over.
Wolves soaked up the early pressure and scored against the run of play a nice ball into Nathan Blakes feet which the striker controlled well turned his marker and powered into the box , as Blake touched the ball past the defender Nayron Noswerthy the player took the legs of Blake , result was penalty and a straight red for the defender , Cameron stepped up and buried the ball to the right of the keeper Brown and put Wolves 1-0 up.
From that sending off incident Wolves took the game by the scruff of the neck , and Cameron nearly doubled the lead for Wolves , Gills defender David Perpetuini let the ball bounce over his head and cleverly Cameron sneaked in behind the defender but his little touch goalwards was saved and cleared away by Brown the gills keeper.
Just before the end of the first half Wolves extended their lead when a great George Ndah through ball was seized onto by Blake the ball by Ndah was brilliant and ripped the defence apart , Blake strode into the box being faced by the onrushing keeper he touched the ball around Brown and slot it into an empty net 2-0 Wolves, just the tonic that made my half time cuppa the sweeter.
Half Time Gillingham 0 Wolves 2
Wolves kicked off kicking towards the Gills fans in the Rainham End with the natives still barracking Nathan Blake and we all know what that means as you carry on reading the report egg on faces time for Gills fans me thinks.
Almost after kick off Wolves should have scored again a cracking ball from the right was plum onto Millers feet but the Scot's control was poor and Hessentaler forced the ball behind for a corner , we went further ahead 7 minutes after the break when a lovely threaded ball into Cameron was delievered first time into the back stick and Nathan Blake was there to fire the ball into the net , it was lovely to watch by now and the play for that goal was first class.
It was keep ball time and every Wolves player joined in and looked comfortable spraying the ball from left to right , but to be fair Gillingham looked well beaten and not bothered by closing Wolves down .
And did it show when Gillinghams favourite player of the evening got his third and first hatrick for Wolves , a great clipped ball into the box by Edworthy was controlled brilliantly by Blake and the big striker turned is marker and bang into the keepers near post for 4-0 , some say keepers shouldn't be beaten at there near post but the power of Blakes left foot strike would have beaten 4 goalkeepers.
Kenny Miller hit the bar in the last 10 minutes to the dismay of a friend of mine who had 5-0 down on the coach sweepstake (sorry geoff) , but it didn't take away the shine of a great Wolves display and now we must be thinking the corner is well and truly turned and going to Watford Saturday and a home game against the leaders Portsmouth next Wednesday we must think 6 pionts and we'll be back up there shouting again.
Full Time Gillingham 0 Wolves 4
Gillingham: Brown, Smith (James 72), Ashby, Nosworthy,
Hessenthaler, Ipoua (T. Johnson), Shaw (Spiller 59), Saunders, Hope, Perpetuini,
Sidibe.
Unused subs: Bartram, L. Johnson.
Bookings: Ipoua (24 – ungentlemanly conduct), Ashby (38 - ungentlemanly conduct).
Sending-Off: Nosworthy (24 – professional foul).
Wolves: Murray, Edworthy, Irwin, Cameron (Ingimarsson 81),
Lescott, Clyde, Ndah (Naylor 89), Ince, Miller (Sturridge 85), Blake, Cooper.
Unused subs: Oakes, Butler.
Bookings: Blake (38 – ungentlemanly conduct), Cooper (65 – foul), Ndah (76 – foul).
Referee: M. Messias.
Attendance: 10,036.