Gillingham 0 Derby 2

ANDY HESSENTHALER must be tearing his hair out. With his side decimated by injuries and struggling to score goals, the last thing he needed was to see the club sell a naturally gifted player like Patrick Agyemang.

The 24-year-old who joined Gillingham from MK Dons in January for £150,000 may not have set Priestfield on fire, but he had the potential to do so if he was given more time.

With eight goals in 33 games, his goal-to-game ratio of 4.1 is only bettered by the currently injured Darren Byfield who averages a goal every three games.

Chairman Paul Scally made around £200,000 profit on the striker who is heading to Preston, but there's a worry that the short-term financial gain will be peanuts compared to the revenue lost if the club gets relegated in May.

Against Derby on Saturday Hessenthaler's side worked hard, but as the man himself said "lacked quality" when it was needed - in front of goal.

At the start Mamady Sidibe and Danny Spiller combined well down the right to get in a dangerous cross, which Adam Boulder did well to turn behind.

Michael Johnson was the next Derby man to make a towering headed clearance and Chris Hope let fly with a pile-driver that troubled the visiting fans to the side of the goal more than their keeper.

Jason Brown made his first great block of the day after quarter of an hour, standing up to a stinging Grzegorz Rasiak shot.

Paul Peschisolido was denied an easy tap-in from the rebound by dogged defending from Hope, but the 25-year-old Polish international Rasiak should have given Brown no chance with the initial effort.

Then came the home side's best spell, Nyron Nosworthy's delightful chipped pass was almost converted by Matty Jarvis, but his volley bounced into the ground and went wide.

Soon after Gills' player-of-the-month Danny Spiller was at the start and end of a free-kick, which he ended up blasting wide after Jarvis' mis-hit shot fell invitingly into his path.

With the tempo quickening Tommy Smith ran at Gills' on-loan Spurs signing Dean Marney and sent over a teasing cross, which Rasiak flattened Richard Rose in his attempts to connect with it.

From the resulting corner Bolder's shot hit his own player skipper Ian Taylor as the Rams turned the screw, but Gills will again have to look at themselves for the opening goal.

Hope was turned inside out by the energetic Smith, but when his cross went straight to Nosworthy the home side could and should have cleared the ball.

Instead it was given straight back and in a spot of high-speed pinball, Smith zipped over a cross to Paul Peschisolido who went for power, missed the goal by inches but found team-mate Rasiak, who gave Brown no chance.

Gills started the second half well, Spiller's floated free-kick causing trouble, Hope and Nosworthy keen to set up attacks from the back.

Gills missed a great chance to go level on the hour when Spiller's cross was inches too high for the bandage-swathed head of Darius Henderson and moments later Johnson got in a goal-saving tackle on Sidibe.

And to add insult to injury in the third minute of stoppage time, veteran midfielder Taylor collected a fine Reich cross and slammed the ball into the top corner.