Stephen Clemence praised his Gillingham players for salvaging a point at home to relegation battlers Grimsby Town after a sickness bug had ravaged the squad.

George Lapslie equalised two minutes after Donovan Wilson’s early opener for the Mariners, with both managers accepting that a draw was a fair result.

Clemence admitted afterwards that getting anything out of the game was a good outcome considering the Gills’ disrupted build-up.

He said: “There were some very, very good performances.”

“I’ve got nine players who barely trained this week and three who have hardly eaten anything this week.”

“I was still getting texts from our physio this morning about players being ill – one more player pulled out this morning. We’ve had a very bad sickness bug here, I’ve never seen anything like it in all my time in football.”

“Fair play to the players for performing the way they did. It took a lot for them to get through that. We’ll take the point and move on.”

“We’ve harped on about not taking our chances all season and we’ve said that we could be a nearly team if we don’t take our chances. I’m not stupid, I know the problems at this football club. They will get sorted, I promise.”

“But we’re still in the mix, the boys have to keep believing, and we’re a point closer with seven games to go. They performed to the levels I expect, so I won’t criticise them for that.”

Wilson had put Grimsby in front after 13 minutes, finishing off an incisive breakaway led by skipper Gavan Holohan.

The lead was short-lived, though, with Lapslie tapping home Timothee Dieng’s cross as Gills levelled almost immediately.

Harvey Rodgers did brilliantly to deny Jonny Williams as Gillingham almost took the lead, before Holohan and Wilson missed chances to restore Grimsby’s advantage.

Connor Mahoney hit a post for Gillingham with the best chance of the second half.

Some Gillingham fans will see it as a missed opportunity to secure three vital points in their push for a play-off place in League Two.

Only time will tell whether it was two points dropped or a point gained, but the squad is starting to look a little thin and goals are proving harder to come by, by the week.

With a trip to Morecambe to come on Saturday, Clemence will be hoping the sickness bug has cleared up and his players have had a chance to rest well for what could be described as a six pointer with both teams pushing for a top seven place.