“I couldn’t miss” joked a delighted Jake Hessenthaler after scoring Gillingham’s match winner on Tuesday night.

The young midfielder was in the right place at the right time to complete a Gillingham win at Plymouth in the first round of the Capital One Cup.

The close-range finish came just two minutes after Bradley Dack’s late strike had levelled the tie.

“It felt absolutely amazing,” said Hessenthaler at Home Park.

“The boys worked hard, especially in the first half, we did well.

“Plymouth scored a good goal, it was a great finish, but we felt we could get back into the game.

“We fought hard and we deserved to come away with a victory. We left it late but that’s the best way because they can’t come back at us.

“With a few minutes left Dack goes through on goal and what a finish that was, just a little dink and I asked the referee how long left. He said five minutes.

“I knew we would get another chance from somewhere. Luckily enough it was me.

“I couldn’t miss really could I? It was a great knock back from Rory (Donnelly) and you can’t really miss from there but it was nice to get on the scoresheet.

“It shows the character of us as a group to come from behind and win. We want to keep on that winning mentality.

“We knew it would be hard to pick up a result but we dug in well and deserved the victory in the end.”

Read more from Jake in this Friday's Medway Messenger newspaper.