Gillingham 1 Nottm Forest 4

Last updated : 04 March 2003 By Footymad Previewer

Nottingham Forest's race towards the play-offs gathered pace with an impressive 4-1 victory at Gillingham.

It was Forest's fifth away league win of the season as they stretched their unbeaten first division run, having still not lost in the league this year.

New signing Darren Huckerby, who caught the eye with two excellent first-half strikes, punishing slack Gills defending on both occasions.

Huckerby scored on his debut at Watford on Saturday and netted his second goal in Forest colours just seven minutes.

Gillingham failed to defend Jim Brennan's long pass and Huckerby hit a powerful drive past Jason Brown to give Paul Hart's men the perfect start.

Hart had done his homework on Gillingham and the Priestfield pitch and changed his team's style to match the conditions as they went for the route-one option.

The story of the game might of been different had Gillingham levelled, defender Roland Edge saw his shot kept out by Darren Ward and neither Rodney Wallace or Tommy Johnson could take advantage of the rebound.

Then Paul Shaw skipped into the box and seemed to be brought down by Forest's England prospect Michael Dawson.

Ref Steve Bennett looked towards his assistant but no flag was raised and a minute later Forest broke away again as Huckerby scored his second.

This time Eoin Jess' long pass fell nicely for the new striker who went past Barry Ashby to beat Brown.

To their credit Gillingham kept battling away and Tommy Johnson and Shaw both went close before half time.

However Gillingham were undone by two quick second-half goals as Forest scored four goals away from home the first time this season.

The watch had barely got past 15 seconds as Huckerby burst through two tackles to set up Marlon Harewood to score his 15th goal of the season, much to the delight of Forests travelling fans.

Forest added their fourth on 56 minutes when Andrew Reid's free-kick was headed in by full-back John Thompson to score his second goal of the season.

Gillingham pulled one back with 11 minutes left as Wallace fired home his ninth of the season and his fourth in six games, but it was a minor setback on a night for Forest.