Fleetwood Town 0-0 Gillingham: Gills hold on for hard-earned point, but injury curse strikes again

The Gills battled through the 97 minutes at Highbury Stadium to earn a 0-0 draw in a match that saw Gareth Ainsworth's side hit the woodwork twice, and Kadeem Harris stretchered off, on a day that offered encouragement and frustration in equal measure.

The encouragement came from a number of positives Ainsworth and the travelling Gills support can take from the game. The defence, featuring the same back three that finished last weekend's game against Walsall, held firm and outduelled Fleetwood, both in the air and on the ground, to earn their first clean sheet of the campaign.

Despite being the away side and on the wrong end of the possession stats, the Gills also created enough chances to win the game, with strikers Ronan Hale and Will Goodwin both hitting the post in the second half. It continued the Gills' unlucky habit of hitting the woodwork, rather than the net, with two efforts coming back off the frame of the goal this weekend to add to the trio of efforts that did the same against Walsall last weekend.

But on the flip-side, despite creating opportunities in the final third, the team still hasn't converted one of the several chances they've created for themselves. It seems both Hale and Goodwin are getting into positions to score, so fingers crossed it's only a matter of time before they do. Hopefully, once they're off the mark, they'll start to put their chances away with regularity.

The biggest negative from the day came with 20 minutes to go, when Kadeem Harris was stretchered off the field. His withdrawal takes the tally of Gillingham players currently unavailable through injury to nine, with Harris joining goalkeepers Ollie Wright and Lennon MacLorg, defenders Sam Tabares and Liam Gordon, and midfielders Armani Little, Ethan Coleman, Garath McCleary and Bradley Dack on Gillingham's long and unwanted injury list.

With Ainsworth's original plan being to operate a smaller squad this season, to see almost half his likely first-choice XI on the treatment table is far from ideal, especially at the start of the season. It also potentially heightens the need for more new arrivals before the summer transfer window closes at 11pm on Tuesday, September 1.

But for now, Gillingham will take the positives from a long, tricky away assignment after responding well to their late collapse against Walsall with a hard-earned point on the road.