Gillingham held on for a goalless draw against Oldham despite playing 52 minutes with 10 men after goalkeeper Simon Royce was sent off.The Gills shot-stopper was shown a straight red card after handling outside his area but the Latics could not take advantage despite hitting the frame of the goal three times through Craig Davies (twice) and Neal Eardley.

Apart from that neither goalkeeper had a serious save to make during the match with Luis Cumbers' snap-shot Gillingham's only serious threat in the first half.

The visitors came close to breaking the deadlock after 31 minutes as Davies struck the post with a fierce low shot from 25 yards.

And the game exploded into life seven minutes later when Royce was sent off after getting a hand to Davies' attempted lob. From the resulting free-kick Eardley clipped the top of the crossbar with replacement keeper Derek Stillie motionless.

Davies saw his header from a Lee Hughes cross hit the post with just seven minutes remaining and he then volleyed over from three yards out as Oldham's thoughts turned to their FA Cup fourth-round clash against Huddersfield on Saturday.

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