Rochdale 1-4 Gillingham: Brophy's brilliant brace inspires Gills to victory

Dale headed into the match buoyed by their midweek thrashing of Shrewsbury Town, while the Gills were coming off a battling come-from-behind draw at Chesterfield. But it was the Gills who hit the goals at Spotland as they hammered their hosts, who also went down to 10 men at 3-0 down.

Gills boss Gareth Ainsworth made two changes from the team that started Tuesday night's draw with Chesterfield as he brought Deadline Day signing Zech Obiero into the middle of midfield in place of Robbie McKenzie, while striker Will Goodwin returned to the strikeforce, with loanee Lamin Sillah dropping to the bench.

Things weren't looking positive early when both Obiero and Goodwin were forced out of the game through injury after just 18 minutes, with Obiero leaving the field on a stretcher after sustaining a suspected hamstring injury. They were replaced by Deadline Day arrival Eli King and the aforementioned Sillah.

Despite that double setback, Gillingham kept their foot on the gas throughout the 90 minutes to score a resounding win as they hit four goals in a league game for the first time since their 4-1 home win over Chesterfield in August 2025.

Brophy got things started on 33 minutes when he cut inside from the right flank and whipped a superb effort from range into the top corner from 20 yards to put the Gills ahead.

Stand-in captain Omar Beckles capped off an impressive week by adding a second as he found himself in the right place at the right time to stab home from close range after some nightmarish defending from the Rochdale back line. The estimated 400-strong travelling Gills army had barely finished celebrating Beckles goal when they were on their feet again when Sillah added a third on 56 minutes.

The impressive King delivered a deep cross into the hosts' box, and Andy Smith got up well to head it back across goal for Sillah, who rose above his marker to head into the top corner via a slight deflection.

Things went from bad to worse for Dale when Ed Francis received his marching orders from referee Jamie Robinson after picking up his second yellow card of the game.

With Rochdale down to 10 men, Gillingham kept pressing, and got a fourth when Brophy ran through the entire Dale defence before slotting past Nils Ramming to make it 4-0.

Dale grabbed a late consolation through Charlie Tasker's set-piece header, but it was a minor negative in a hugely encouraging display from Ainsworth's men, who head home with their first league win of the season secured, but with more injury concerns to deal with, too.