Joe Martin was a relieved to see that his side’s sterling defensive work wasn’t undone in stoppage time at Oxford on Saturday.

The left-back (pictured) admitted he was a worried man when winger Oli Johnson went to ground in the box after he and the rest of the Gillingham defence had given blood and sweat to keep their opponents out for 92 minutes.

Referee David Coote opted to book the Oxford man and the Gills were able to claim a clean sheet.

"It was poor defending from me to let him get into that position in the first place but I thought he went down easily and it wasn’t a penalty," said Martin.

"I didn’t make contact and he was already on the way down. I have been sent off a few times when I thought I shouldn’t have done and so you never know what these referees are going to do to be honest."

Johnson – with pace to burn – was a late Oxford substitute who was brought on as a last resort after everything else thrown at the Gills defence failed to produce a goal.

"I had a lot of one-on-one defending to do and then when they brought on a quick lad my side it was something I didn’t really need," admitted Martin.

"We got through the game and we didn’t concede. Some people will say we got lucky with the penalty but we haven’t always had luck this year and that’s gone for us. That was nice.

"We defended for our lives. We couldn’t see them scoring and it was just one of those days where it didn’t drop for us at the other end. We will carry on for next week and try and improve that."