Scunthorpe United 1 - 1 Gillingham

A LATE Richard Hinds goal denied Gillingham all three points at Scunthorpe United on Saturday.

Danny Jackman was beaten on the wing by Peter Beagrie whose cross eluded the defenders and was knocked in by Hinds.

Gillingham had taken the lead through former boss Andy Hessenthaler on the hour mark.

A ball forward was missed by substitute Matt Jarvis but found its way through to Hessenthaler who bore down on goal and finished brilliantly with a drilled right-foot shot across keeper Paul Musselwhite.

The home side were almost level immediately when Cleveland Taylor got the better of Danny Jackman and fed Steve Torpey who forced a fine save from Jason Brown.

Gillingham nearly doubled their lead with 18 minutes to go, but Darren Byfield's instinctive shot crashed back off the Scunthorpe crossbar.

Scunthorpe had started the game brightly enough although there were few chances in the first half.

The first shot of any meaning came after seven minutes, but Richard Hind's drive from 25-yards was comfortably swallowed by Brown in the Gillingham goal.

Gills breathed a sigh of relief in the 23rd minute when Chris Hope did superbly well to get in the way of a Wayne Corden shot after Ian Cox had unsuccessfully tried to play the offside trap.

The closest the visitors came to breaking the deadlock in the opening 45 minutes was a Byfield effort which cleared the crossbar.

Byfield was dismissed for a second bookable offence with 10 minutes to play, and Scunthorpe were level soon afterwards.

Despite the late blow, Gillingham remain unbeaten after three matches of their League 1 campaign.

Gillingham: Brown, Rose, Cox, Hope, Jackman, Hessenthaler (Shields 70), Flynn, Pouton, Crofts, Spiller (Jarvis 57), Byfield. Subs Not Used: Knowles, Johnson, Corneille.

Attendance: 5,007.

Other League 1 results:

Bournemouth 2 - 0 Bristol City
Bradford City 2 - 0 MK Dons
Chesterfield 0 - 1 Rotherham
Colchester United 1 - 0 Barnsley
Doncaster 0 - 1 Hartlepool United
Huddersfield Town 3 - 1 Swansea City
Swindon Town 2 - 1 Notts Forest
Walsall 2 - 2 Southend United
Yeovil Town 1 - 1 Blackpool

SEE MONDAY'S MEDWAY MESSENGER FOR FULL MATCH REPORT.

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