Luis Boa Morte set Fulham alight

It is a generally accepted showbusiness truth that the secret of good comedy is timing and the maxim had a certain parallel at Priestfield on Saturday when Jean Tigana, the Fulham manager, made a second-half substitution that left him laughing all over his face.

Gillingham, however, failed to see the joke. Tigana’s master-stroke came in the 62nd minute when he took off Bjarne Goldbaek, who had done nothing to deserve the big hook that peremptorily removed him from the stage, and replaced him with Luis Boa Morte.

Up to that point, Gillingham had toiled manfully and mostly successfully to hold the Nationwide League first division champions-elect at bay and fostered ambitions of emerging with at least one point, maybe three. Boa Morte changed all that.

He had been on the field only six minutes before his searing pace took him from deep in his own half to set up the opening goal. The home defence seemed to have the situation in hand, but John Collins controlled the ball just outside the penalty area and beat Vince Bartram in the Gillingham goal with a low drive. It opened the way for Fulham to return to winning ways after their defeat in midweek away to Burnley.

Three minutes from time, Lee Clark moved through the five-man Gillingham midfield then drew the last line of defence out of shape before releasing Boa Morte, who coolly slid the ball past Bartram and into the empty net.

Andy Hessenthaler, the Gillingham player-manager, was spitting bullets after his club’s second home defeat in five days, and most of them were directed at Steve Baines, the referee. Hessenthaler was convinced that his team were denied a penalty in the first half when Baines gave a free kick outside the Fulham penalty area after it had appeared that Marcus Browning had been felled by Andy Melville well beyond the whitewash.

“Even the assessor came in to my office afterwards and agreed it should have been a penalty and that the player should have been sent off,” Hessenthaler said. Sounds like Baines might in a spot of bother from the classroom sneak.

GILLINGHAM (3-5-2): V Bartram — B Ashby, A Pennick, C Hope — M Patterson, T Gooden, P Smith, M Browning, N Southall — P Shaw (sub: C Asaba, 61min), M King (sub: I Onuora, 60). Substitutes not used: N Nosworthy, R Rose, K James.
Booked: Ashby.

FULHAM (4-4-2): M Taylor — S Finnan, A Melville, K Symons, R Brevett — B Goldbaek (sub: L Boa Morte, 64), L Clark, S Davis (sub: A Neilson, 68), J Collins — L Saha (sub: K Riedle, 84), B Hayles. Substitutes not used: M Hahnemann, P Moller. Booked: Symons.

Referee: S Baines.