Adams heads back to quell romantics

Gillingham's player-manager Andy Hessenthaler had promised even before yesterday's gallant performance against the FA Cup favourites that his team would, in the best traditions of English football "have a right booze-up" whatever the result. They earned it, and the Shepherd Neame was doubtless flowing in Kentish hostelries last night as some 6,500 supporters returned home with two fine goals and a proud afternoon in the memory bank.

Marlon King and Ty Gooden scored in front of those visiting hordes at Highbury's Clock End to leave the First Division side level at two-each early in the second half and dreaming great dreams. They were shattered soon after the fourth official held up a board announcing that Arsenal had decided to get serious by sending Thierry Henry and Robert Pires from the dugout to earn their wages; Pires immediately set up Tony Adams for a third goal to crown the club captain's comeback after five months. It was hard on Gillingham, and their former Arsenal goalkeeper Vince Bartram in particular, that Sylvain Wiltord and Ray Parlour should distort the scoreline in the last 10 minutes.

Win or lose, Arsenal are off the booze under Arsène Wenger, even when there is not a month of Champions' League ties looming. As an example of the benefits, the manager needed only to point to that critical third goal, headed in by a reformed alcoholic who is still insisting, at the moment, that this is his last season before retirement. With Sol Campbell in stuttering form – he was at fault for both goals yesterday – a fit Adams could be invaluable as his club chase three trophies over the next three months.

Having eight players unavailable through a combination of disciplinary misdemeanours, injuries and, in Lauren's case, taking the long route home after celebrating Cameroon's triumph in the African Nations' Cup – meant a weakened Arsenal team even without resting players ahead of Tuesday's return to Europe away to Bayer Leverkusen. Wenger still decided to put Henry and Pires on the substitutes' bench until a further injection of quality was required.

Among the beneficiaries were two Brazilians, Juan Duarte and the rarely seen Edu, who merely justified his reputation for unreliability. Francis Jeffers, injured for much of the time since his expensive summer move from Everton, and Lee Dixon also made timely, if rusty, returns.

Gillingham, hustling hard and tackling firmly, were seven minutes from achieving their first target, of reaching half-time on level terms.

In the 38th minute, Bartram did well to push out Jeffers' effort, only to find Sylvain Wiltord stabbing the ball back past him. The visiting supporters, supplying a genuine Cup-tie atmosphere, could not complain, as the crossbar in front of them had twice been rattled. Wiltord's drive hit it in the 24th minute, Edu poking the rebound wide, and four minutes later the Brazilian was unfortunate with a half-volley that also struck the frame.

The only moment of anything like alarm for Arsenal had been early on, when Iffy Onuora burst past Dixon and pulled his shot wide as King screamed for a pass. So nothing hinted at the dramas to come at the start of the second half. Within two minutes of the resumption, Gillingham had an equaliser, stemming from a poor pass by Ray Parlour in midfield. Paul Shaw, who had 12 first-team games in his six seasons at Highbury, intercepted and ran 60 yards before finding King, who was being played on by Campbell, and finished perfectly. Joy at the Clock End was unconfined, but brief: soon Bartram could only push out Edu's low free-kick and Kanu squeezed the ball in from an unlikely angle. Four more minutes and Gooden, rejected as an Arsenal apprentice, brushed past Campbell and half-volleyed an exquisite lob over Richard Wright. Wenger decided it was time for Henry and Pires, whose cross was headed in by a triumphant Adams. Bartram had made distinguished saves from Wiltord, Kanu and Jeffers and it was all the more cruel he should be beaten twice more.

Nine minutes from the end of what had become a thoroughly entertaining afternoon, Pires made ground down the left and clipped a low cross back for Wiltord, who had one shot blocked by a defender but was favoured with a rebound that he put away without ceremony for a fourth goal in three games. Four-two. "We're gonna win 5-4," chanted the Kentish hordes. Sadly, not even the FA Cup is that romantic, and it condemned their team to a worse beating than was deserved when Parlour hit a superb volley after a defender headed out Juan's centre. Arsenal were in the quarter-finals for the 21st time in their history and the third in four years. "I'm very proud of my players," Hessenthaler said. Kent will drink to that. And probably did.