GILLS slipped deeper into trouble at the foot of the Championship table after a 4-1 defeat against fellow strugglers Crewe.

Darius Henderson headed a life-line for Gillingham after they had gone two goals behind with strikes either side of the half, but were buried by Ashton’s second ten minutes from time and a final sucker-punch from Steve Jones in the last minute.

Crewe opened the scoring in the thirty-fifth minute as Vaughan’s strike ended a dire opening half-hour.

Darren Byfield, returning to the side after a knee injury, was guilty of missing two golden opportunities to score for the visitors.

Firstly Darius Henderson had put him clean through on goal, but a bad first touch saw him take it wide, and from an acute angle the striker hit the bar.

Another excellent pass, this time from Andrew Crofts, gifted Byfield a second chance just before the break but he got the ball caught up in between his legs and failed once more with the goal at his mercy.

Crewe’s first goal came after some superb link-up play by Anthony Tonkin and Vaughan, which left Gills defence in tatters, and Brown had no hope of getting to Vaughan’s shot.

The second goal came on 69 minutes as Kenny Lunt’s free-kick was buried by Ashton for his twelfth of the season.

Just two minutes later Henderson pulled a goal back for Gillingham as he headed in a cross from Danny Spiller.

Any hopes of a fight-back were extinguished as Ashton found himself in a mile of space to make it 3-1.

The final goal came at the death as substitute Steve Jones fired in with his first touch past a dejected Jason Brown.

Gills: Brown, Nosworthy, Smith, Henderson, Rose, Crofts, Hope, Byfield, Spiller, Robinson (T Johnson 48), Marney (Jarvis 71). Subs: Banks, L Johnson, Sidibe. Att: 6,128 (373 Gills Supporters)