by Luke Cawdell

Gillingham boss Martin Allen was a proud man after seeing his side scrap it out for maximum points against Southend on Tuesday night.

The Gills had to defend for almost the entire second half, after going down to 10 men following Bradley Dack’s red card.

But there was no way through for Southend and Danny Kedwell’s first-half penalty proved to be enough to win the game.

“What a night it was, having one of our better players (Charlie Lee) injured early on and another sent off," said Allen, pictured.

"In the second half it was backs to the walls but we defended rigidly, the goalkeeper made some good saves and all of them defended, all of them worked hard and it was a great win.

“We had a young team out there, with a lot of changes, and there was a great atmosphere. Southend will probably be a team in the play-offs. It was a good result and I am very proud of them.

“They showed great heart, great desire and they stuck to their tasks, had discipline, helped and supported each other and it was a special night.”

Despite being a man down Allen went in search of a second goal after the break, before bringing on Andy Frampton to shore things up.

“I thought we would score again,” he said. “Obviously I expected them to push on. They took off a centre-back and put on a very attacking left-sided full-back in Straker, who I have seen a lot of. He bombed down that wing and they kept their other winger on the right wing permanently and got the ball to him.

“They did have a lot of possession and there were times I felt we could have got higher up the pitch, but, when it came to it, where it really mattered, between the six-yard box and the penalty spot we had so many bodies all defending that goal. That is key.

“They can have the passes all they like around the centre circle and on the wings but when that ball comes into the middle that is the key part and that is where you need your players to defend and do the job properly.

"I was totally confident in them and I knew they would put their bodies on the line. They threw themselves in the way of shots and our keeper was superb. He made a brilliant save in the first half, at 0-0, it was a world-class save and apart from that I was totally confident.”

And Allen accepted Dack’s sending-off in first-half stoppage time which meant for a testing second half.

“There are no complaints; I always respect the referee’s decision,” he said.

“That’s how the referee saw it and he was closer to the incident than me. Whether it was a bad tackle, I don’t know. In my opinion I don’t know if it was, I wasn’t close enough to see it.”

Allen wanted the fans to play their part and in the second half they did, as Priestfield came alive.

He said: “It was a great atmosphere and I thought the music before the game and afterwards was fantastic. I had both of those two fellas in my office before the game about the music.

“There is a fella called Phil, who works in the media department, and he put together all the edits from Southend’s games through the season. We studied that to watch them.

“Everyone right through the club is contributing. Someone walked my dog at half-time. All of those types of things help me, help the club, help the team and that’s the spirit that I hope we are generating right through the football club and into the community.”