Gillingham head coach Stephen Clemence was delighted with the resilience his players showed in unusual circumstances in their last-gasp 1-0 victory over AFC Wimbledon.
The match was delayed by 23 minutes due to floodlight failure at the Priestfield Stadium midway through the second half after a power cut hit the local area.
After the players went back to the changing rooms for a time, there was a flurry of late chances when play eventually resumed and Conor Masterson snatched the win in the 85th minute to lift the Gills up to seventh in League Two.
Clemence said: “I thought the lads were fantastic. A 1-0 victory against a team that’s close to you in the table – they were above us before tonight and we’ve beaten them at home.
“I’m absolutely delighted with the boys because I remember those days myself as a player: tight games, not easy and you have to show good strength of character.
“I thought to a man they stood up to be counted and the subs when they came on as well were obviously great as well.
“It’s nice to score from a set-play. I said to the boys downstairs it’s amazing how many tight games are won by set-plays, so it’s something we’ve got to keep working on.
“It was obviously nice to bring Macauley [Bonne] on, I thought he gave us a bit of presence and he sets up the goal straight away.”
The match was a poor spectacle before the lights went out in the 64th minute but improved afterwards, with Wimbledon striker Ali Al-Hamadi coming agonisingly close by striking the inside of the post.
Gillingham grabbed their winner soon after when Jonny Williams’ free-kick was nodded back across by Bonne and Masterson was on hand to prod in from close range and spark wild celebrations.
AFC Wimbledon boss Johnnie Jackson said: “I don’t know how we haven’t won that.
“It’s hard to fathom, really, I thought we were the dominant team in the game.
“I don’t think we were at our best, I don’t think we had loads of outstanding chances, but we limited the opposition to so little and pretty much spent the second half camped in their half.
“We haven’t made the most of those opportunities, whether it was the chances to score, whether it was the opportunities when we broke off our shape and getting that last bit right; the pass, the cross, whatever it was.
“We were just a little bit wasteful in those moments and then we obviously got done on a set-piece.
“I think they had one other good chance I can think of, so to get done like that is hard to take.”
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
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.
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