Stephen Clemence pledged to lift the shackles on low-scoring Gillingham after they powered past Salford in a 3-1 victory.
Goals from Connor Mahoney, Tom Nichols and Dom Jefferies earned victory in Clemence’s first home league game at the helm.
Clemence has inherited the joint-least potent attack in Sky Bet League Two and the Gills had only scored more than one goal in a game only twice before this clinical performance.
“I told the boys that we can’t win every game 1-0,” Clemence revealed. “I’ve said we want to play more football and ultimately I want to win games.
“I have to say well done to the players, as they’ve taken on everything we’ve tried to give them over the past two weeks in training. I hope that gives them a confidence boost.”
Indeed, Gillingham could have scored four goals in a home league game for the first time since January 2021, but Shad Ogie’s late header struck the crossbar.
Huddersfield loan star Mahoney curled home a fine opener with his left foot after 22 minutes, cancelled out when Salford striker Matt Smith rose above Ogie to meet Ryan Watson’s cross and head past Jake Turner.
Unlocking Nichols’ goal threat will be a key priority for Clemence – the striker had not scored in the league since April before guiding home a header from Jonny Williams’ cross to restore the lead in the 54th minute.
Gills all-but sealed their victory shortly after the hour mark when Jefferies met Cheye Alexander’s looping assist to head past Salford goalkeeper Alex Cairns.
“I’m proud of the performance,” said Clemence. “We struggled in the first 15 minutes; we couldn’t get the ball off them, but they didn’t hurt us. When you hang on in games and suffer through periods that can pay off.
“We played well and some good. I could see some of the things we’ve been working on in training coming out on the pitch. The performance was good, the result is a bonus.”
This is Clemence’s first senior management role having been part of Steve Bruce’s backroom team at Sunderland, Hull, Aston Villa, Sheffield Wednesday, Newcastle and West Brom.
He admitted: “I’m not going to lie, I had a few butterflies coming into the game. Everybody I’ve spoken to in management has said that feeling never changes, even as you do more games.
“It was nice to give the supporters something to cheer. We need to make sure we’re all on the same page as we’re all trying to achieve the same things here.”
Neil Wood’s Salford are struggling to build momentum in a stop-start season. After being knocked out of the FA Cup by Peterborough on penalties, this was their second successive league defeat.
Wood castigated his side’s defending, saying, “The bottom line of the second half is that you can’t defend crosses like we did, you can’t not mark properly, and you can’t not get contact on
the opposition player.
“If you compare the difference between the two boxes to when we’re attacking and when the opposition are attacking, it’s night and day. The defending is poor for the second and third goals. You can’t defend like that.
“It’s basic stuff: if you can’t stop the cross, get hold of your man, mark them properly, get your position right and stop them getting to the ball first. We weren’t good enough at that today and ultimately we got punished.
“I thought we started well, but we were disappointed to concede in the way we did. We lost our way after that until we scored our goal. I thought the first half was quite even and I thought we had enough to go on and win it.”
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
Taylor pleased with City's physical test during Hammarby win
Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor was pleased with how his team stood up to the physical challenge of Hammarby in their 2-0 Champions League victory on Tuesday.
City's win extended their unbeaten start to the season, having won every game in all competitions following a 2-2 draw against Arsenal on opening day.
“Difficult game for us, physical challenge, a physical team in Hammarby. I think they outnumber us a little bit in terms of size, considering when you look at our midfield. But I thought the girls handled it really well," Taylor said after the game
“I thought we dominated the game. In the early parts we were just a little bit off in our final action. We just needed to speed up a little bit in terms of being on the end of it, and we spoke about that at half-time, and we score with Laura getting into that type of position we’d been talking about.
“[The physicality was something] we were prepared for, but dealing with it is a different thing. Having Bunny [Khadija Shaw] and Alanna [Kennedy] on the pitch, two of our more physical players, is really important, particularly for set-plays.
“At 1-0 we were defending a couple of scenarios like that, Yama [Ayaka Yamashita] making a really good save at one point. Then Aoba [Fujino] got the goal that maybe allowed us to change things up a little bit more, get some people off that we’d like to manage.
“I think the girls have dealt with it really well tonight. We expected it, we thought it would be difficult, and they rose to the challenge.”
The victory leaves City top of their Champions League group with a 100% record after three matches, three points above second-placed Barcelona.
Taylor had made changes to City's starting XI, with Lauren Hemp among the trio to drop out from the weekend and she did not feature in the squad. Ahead of their weekend game against Chelsea, who are second in the WSL, Taylor explained the reasoning behind Hemp's absence.
“We’ve just got an issue with Lauren that we just need to analyse a little bit further, that’s all," he said.
“It’s something that potentially happened in the Palace game [on 3 November]. She was able to play in the Tottenham game [last Friday] but wasn’t able to tonight, so we’ll just take a little bit longer to assess and find out more.
“Hopefully [she can play against Chelsea]. There’s an opportunity there, we’ll just have to take a moment tomorrow, have a good conversation and find out where we’re at with the medical staff.”
Al-Riyadh 0-1 Al-Nassr: Mane hands visitors bragging rights
Sadio Mane's first-half strike ensured Al-Nassr maintained their unbeaten start to the Saudi Pro League season with a 1-0 win over rivals Al-Riyadh.
He smartly finished from close range in the 41st minute, with his goal enough to seal the three points and move Al-Nassr up to third in the table.
Al-Nassr's threat grew as the first half went on, with Milan Borjan making a fine double stop to deny Ronaldo and Talisca once again before Mohamed Simakan struck the post on the rebound.
Mane would eventually break the deadlock in the 41st minute though, darting in front of his marker to meet Abdulrahman Ghareeb's low cross and rifle it into the roof of the net.
The Senegalese striker arguably should have doubled his tally before the break, but was denied by Borjan's stretching save when one-on-one with the Canadian.
Talisca should have wrapped up the points in the final three minutes, but he blazed over an empty net from close range, before having a late goal disallowed for offside.
Data Debrief: Derby delight for Al-Nassr
After drawing their last two matches, this win was a welcome result for Al-Nassr as they racked up their sixth victory of the season to close the gap at the top of the table to six points.
It is just the second time Al-Nassr have avoided defeat in their first 10 matches of a Pro League campaign, last doing so in 2013-14, when they won the league title.
They are now unbeaten in their last seven Pro League derbies (W4 D3), their longest such streak since a run of nine between 2018 and 2020.
This is the first time in eight such games that they have kept a clean sheet though, and limited their opponents to just five shots throughout.
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