Gillingham overcome Dagenham to secure huge tie against Leicester

Gillingham, 23rd in the fourth tier of English football, overcame Dagenham & Redbridge in extra time of their FA Cup Replay to fix their place in the third round for a home challenge against Leicester City.

After Scott Kashket’s 92nd minute equaliser in the original tie 12 days ago, the league two strugglers were given a lifeline through a replay at home.

It was already common ground that the winner of this fixture will face the premier league side, who are 13th in the table. This was surely motivation for both teams to overcome their opposition and win the replay.

After a tough 90 minutes, with George Saunders’ 84th minute equalise looking to take the match to extra time – and even the prospect of penalties. The Gills’ FA Cup Dream looked like it was out of their hands until the original tie’s hero and substitute Kashket was clear down the left and squared the ball across for Hakeeb Adelakun hit home a powerful left-foot strike in the 95th minute of injury time.

The Gills now face Leicester at the Priestfield Stadium in January and fans are ecstatic even if there may be 84 places between the two sides in the English league tables.

Fan, Freddie Hall told me “It was a very good performance from the Gills, I think this mindset is just what we need to save our season going into the second half and most importantly to put up a good fight against a big team like Leicester coming to Priestfield.”

This tie will be Gillingham’s second encounter against Premier League opposition as they face Wolves in the league cup on December 20th before the game against Leicester – but before that they focus on Sunday’s visit from 6th place Bradford City.