Gillingham 0 Derby County 2

Last updated : 13 November 2004 By Footymad Previewer

Derby County continued their run of good form with a hard fought 2-0 win at Gillingham in a game of few chances.

The result leaves the Gills firmly rooted in the bottom three of the Championship and takes Derby's run of unbeaten games to five.

The home side almost took the lead on the half-hour when the Derby defence failed to clear their lines and Mamady Sidibe's mis-hit shot fell to Matthew Jarvis, but he blasted wide.

Derby drew first blood just three minutes before the break through Grzegorz Rasiak who took his tally to five Championship goals for the season when Paul Peschisolido headed the ball back across the goal for the Pole to thump the ball into an empty net with Gills keeper Jason Brown stranded.

The lanky Pole, who played against England in their recent World Cup qualifier, was a constant threat to the Gillingham defence as he was full of running and showed an impressive range of passing.

Gillingham started the second half with more purpose as they went in search of an equaliser and were unlucky not to get one in the 55th minute through the bandaged head of Darius Henderson, but he was inches away from connecting with Jarvis' inviting far post cross.

The pair combined again on 75 minutes but Henderson's header went straight into the grateful arms of Lee Camp who was barely troubled all game.

The striker was lucky not to be dismissed with just two minutes to go when he caught the advancing Camp with a late tackle.

The introduction of veteran striker Iwan Roberts with 15 minutes to go gave Gillingham an extra dimension up front, but it proved to be too little too late for the Championship strugglers.

Derby captain Ian Taylor got the second deep into injury time to round off a well-deserved win for the visitors.