A relieved Yeovil Town returned from Kent with a hard earned point but their lack of punch in front of goal will be giving Russell Slade plenty to think about.

The game's other major talking point was the sending off of Stephen Maher who clashed with Gillingham's King in a fierce challenge for the ball that resulted in referee Deadman soon flashing the red card.

Talking after the game manager Russell Slade was the first to admit it had been a hard game: "We had to battle hard to go back with a point and it did get a bit hairy towards the end with a few penalty appeals and a deflection against the point but I don't think any of the penalty appeals would have stood up.

"I'd have to look again at Maher's challenge before I comment on that."

Yeovil started well but it was Delroy Facey who had the first chance for The Gills in the 4^th. minute but his effort went wide.

It took Yeovil until the 11^th. minute before their first real chance when Marvin Williams had a great run down the right and set up Liam Bridcutt but his shot was deflected over.

Probably the most disappointing factor for Yeovil was the complete lack of efforts on goal, for although they had plenty of possession they consistently failed to get any service into Andy Kirk in his lone role up front.

Barry and Bridcutt worked well in the midfield and the guile of Stewart was always going to be a threat but there seemed nothing was ever going to get through to Kirk for a strike on goal.

In fact the half closed when Adam Miller fired a free kick wide although Flinders seemed to have it covered.

Gillingham began the brighter in the second half and certainly had more of the possession and the defending became alarmingly more desperate and necessary but thankfully for Yeovil The Gill's strikers were having much the same luck as Yeovil.

In the 54^th. minute Facey again had a chance but fired over and then in the 77^th. minute there was a huge penalty appeal when Terrell Forbes fell awkwardly onto the ball and appeared to touch the ball with his hand.

As The Gills pressed all the harder Skiverton was lucky not to give away an own goal when he deflected a clearance very close to Flinders goal.

Russell Slade started his changes early and having brought on Church for Williams and Owusu for Bridcutt he brought on Stephen Maher for Andy Kirk in the 74^th. minute.

Maher's first contribution was a determined run on goal that earned a corner but as the ball was worked up the left hand side young Stephen dived in on Gillingham's King for a full bloodied challenge for the ball.

It clearly was a hard challenge but Maher also caught King as well as the ball and the referee soon brought out his red card after some reaction from the Gillingham players.

With Yeovil down to 10 men it was then all hands to pumps as Gillingham desperately tried to make their numerical superiority count but with Forbes, Lynch and Skiverton battling for their lives Yeovil managed to hang on to the end to take a point back to Somerset.

With other results going their way no further damage was inflicted on the Glovers but the matches against Cheltenham and Millwall will take on even more importance and with Lee Peltier now banned for two games following his tenth booking Slade will again have to make changes at the back.