Gillingham 1 Oxford United 0

Last updated : 24 August 2005 By Footymad Previewer
Jarvis: Matchwinner
A well-taken goal from 19-year-old Matthew Jarvis was enough to see Gillingham through to the second round of the Carling Cup.

The tricky left-winger latched on to a through ball from Darren Byfield with seven minutes remaining and fired in off the post to hand Neale Cooper's side to a 1-0 victory in a game that never really captured the imagination.

In an evenly contested first period Oxford were closest to breaking the deadlock after just four minutes when Robert Hughes' cross was well met by Lee Bradbury's head, but Jason Brown got down well to save.

Despite some excellent link-up play by veteran Steve Claridge, Gillingham didn't really threaten until the 24th minute when Jude Stirling's clearing header almost ended up in his own net.

But the best move of the half saw Byfield cut in from the right to release Claridge who turned on the edge of the area and played in Jarvis but his shot was well saved by Chris Tardif.

From the resulting corner Stirling inadvertently diverted the ball on to his own crossbar, but much to his relief the ball bounced away to safety.

Gillingham came out for the second half looking more determined but the first chance fell to Oxford's Craig Davies who shot straight at Brown when one-on-one.

Jarvis then gave warning of the threat he posed down the left wing when after 62 minutes he picked up an excellent cross field ball from Alan Pouton only to see his powerful drive well saved.

Byfield then dragged his shot wide from close range after he had done all the hard work, before Jarvis popped up to seal the win for Gillingham.