Luke Rooney scored twice for Gillingham as they came from two goals behind to comfortably see off Dartford on Friday night.

An entertaining opening half saw the Darts quickly establish a two goal lead, with a brace from Jack Pallen, before goals from Dennis Oli and Chris Whelpdale levelled it up by half-time.

Lewis Montrose put the Gills ahead on the hour with a superb solo effort but Rooney went even better with the fourth – his fourth pre-season goal from four games.

Rooney made it five for the summer when he smashed home Gillingham’s fifth with three minutes left.

Gills boss Andy Hessenthaler dispensed with most of his trialists for the match at Princes Park, with Argentinian keeper Paolo Gazziniga the only non-contracted player included in the 23-man squad.

Dartford began the match in enthusiastic fashion with Ryan Hayes shining on the right flank. It was his 20 minute cross that fell invitingly for Pallen to guide home to open the scores.

Six minutes later Pallen doubled the lead. Gills keeper Ross Flitney’s clearance was charged down by Lee Burns and the ball ran to Pallen who slotted home from 15 yards.

Flitney denied Pallen a hat-trick with a close-range block moments later but the night ended on a sour note for the Darts striker, as he limped out of the match with half an hour gone.

As the half wore on the Gills showed their dominance. Danny Jackman’s deep cross was headed home by Dennis Oli to make it 2-1 and before half-time Chris Whelpdale had made it 2-2.

Keeper Andrew Young got a touch to Whelpdale’s shot, which was engineered following an interchange of passes with Oli, but he was unable to get enough on the ball to stop it going in.

The Gills made seven changes at the break while Dartford took Hayes off.

Montrose, one of the second half substitutes, put the Gills ahead with a fine individual goal. His first touch put him in space and after running in on goal he unleashed a powerful low shot to beat Young.

Rooney scored the goal of the night when he cut in from the flank, jinked his way past the defence and drove a low shot across the keeper.

Gills’ winger Rooney made it 5-2 when Stefan Payne laid the ball off and from the edge of the box the youngster smashed a rising shot into the net to cap off a good work-out for the visitors.

Darts: Young, Jones (Cooper 77mins), Green (Anderson 68mins), Champion (Eves 83mins), Bonner, Wallis (Fitzgerald 83mins), Hayes (Graham 46mins), Noble (Bradbrook 68mins), Pallen (Harris 32mins), Burns, Rogers.

Gills: Flitney (Gazzaniga 69mins), Fish (Brunt 77mins), Martin (Davies 79mins), Lee (Weston 46mins), Lawrence (Richards 46mins), King (Frampton 46mins), Whelpdale (J Payne 46mins), Spiller (Montrose 46mins), Kedwell (S Payne 64mins), Jackman (Birchall 46mins), Oli (Rooney 46mins).

Attendance: 1,010