York boss Scott Lindsey hailed “brilliant” substitute Jovan Malcolm after the on-loan Stevenage striker inspired his team to a 3-0 win over 10-man Gillingham.
Malcolm scored the hosts’ decisive second goal in between efforts from Joe Grey and Ollie Pearce to take his season’s tally to three, even though he is yet to start a League Two contest for the Minstermen.
His contributions have won over a sceptical section of the York fanbase, who initially questioned his record of two goals from 27 contests last term.
And Lindsey said: “He was class. He’s so powerful and strikes the ball so well.
“Supporters will have an opinion on every signing we make and I understand that, but he’s been brilliant for us and I have to give credit to our recruitment team who have built a really strong squad. We’ve got good players on the bench and sat in the stands as well as in the starting line-up.”
Grey opened the scoring early on with Malcolm doubling the advantage after substitute Zane Albarus was sent off for the Gills in the 70th minute for two bookable offences before Pearce wrapped up matters.
The hosts should have enjoyed a heavier margin of victory, with Lindsey admitting: “We had enough chances to win two games.
“We had a couple cleared off the line, a couple hit the post and a couple of gilt-edged situations and, sometimes, when you have so many chances and don’t take them, you wonder whether it will come back to haunt you, but it didn’t and we got two more good goals.”
Gillingham boss Gareth Ainsworth lamented the loss of two more players to injury with Will Goodwin and Eli King both exiting the action in the first half.
He said: “The injuries didn’t help us at all. Losing Will less than 10 minutes into the game left us short of a platform to build from up front.
“We also seem to be losing so many players to serious, long-term injuries. I don’t know why and Eli could be another.”
Gillingham had won their last three games and were only trailing 1-0 prior to Albarus’s dismissal – a decision that Ainsworth contested, arguing that referee Scott Oldham should have awarded a free-kick to his team seconds before the incident.
“There was a foul on Harry Waldock before Zane made a zealous challenge trying to win the ball back,” Ainsworth claimed. “If the ref stops the game then, that wouldn’t have happened.
“That made it very hard for us, playing with 10 men against York on a big pitch where they like to pass the ball around.
“But we have been really good the last few weeks and we’ll just have to get back to that next week, because there are a lot of teams on worse runs of form than us.”
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