Wycombe Wanderers 0 Gillingham 1

Myles Weston tortured and teased Wycombe before setting up the winner for ten man Gills.

Classy Weston's pace and trickery had caused Wycombe problems all evening and the man of the match had a hand in full back Joe Martin's 55th minute strike.

Weston hit fellow winger Chris Whelpdale's short free kick against the post from 25 yards and Martin pounced to bury the rebound from close in with keeper Nikki Bull stranded.

But Gillingham were forced to cling on when central defender Tom Flanagan was shown a red card from the 78th minute after picking up a second booking.

Bull had kept Wycombe's hopes alive.

Gillingham substitute Charlie Allen nearly grabbed a goal with his first touch less than two minutes after coming on at half time, but Bull stood firm to beat away his ten yard shot.

In the 67th minute Bull was forced to dive to his left to save a blistering 25 yard shot from midfielder Charlie Lee.

And when Bull was left flat-footed four minutes later, Whelpdale could only steer Weston's left wing cross wide of goal at the far post.

Bull was also involved as both sides had chances to open the scoring before the break.

Weston left two defenders on their backsides in the 21st minute before sprinting in on goal from half way only to see Bull block his shot from twelve yards.  

And Bull again had to be alert again three minutes before the break when he was called on to back-peddle and tip over a mis-hit cross from Martin that was dipping under his bar.

Wycombe's £500,000 rated striker Stuart Beavon had the first sniff of goal in the seventh minute, but his volley from the edge of the box just cleared the bar.

Beavon is being linked with a move to either Preston, Millwall or Brentford following his 25 goal haul for the Chairboys last term.

In the thirteenth minute winger Sam Wood wriggled past two defenders on the edge of the Gillingham box, but curled his shot narrowly wide.

Gillingham boss Martin Allen was delighted with his players and said:

"I thought we did okay in the first half and then took it to another level in the second half. It was always going to be a hard game. Gary's teams always have a go.

Everyone was fully committed and so fair play to all of the players. They all care and we're not carrying any passengers. They all know their jobs and when they do them they're hard to break down.

It was fantastic to score in front of our own fans. They sang their hearts out all game and we've seen in the Olympics that when fans get behind their team they find another gear."

Disappointed Wycombe manager Gary Waddock admitted:

"We didn't play well enough in the second half to get something from the game and we should've scored in the first half when we were on top.

Gillingham were the better side, particularly in the second half.

We'll dust ourselves down and go again on Saturday. Hopefully we can put this one behind us. We'll bounce back."