Gillingham manager Justin Edinburgh felt his side were dangerous as they beat Southend United 3-1 for the second time in four days.

Going behind at Roots Hall for the second time in the two games, The Gills roared back at their Essex opponents to book their place in the Second Round of the EFL Cup.

A brace from substitute Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and the equaliser from Cody McDonald saw Gillingham progress at the expense of Southend who were stunned by another great comeback from the Kent club.

Having seen his side tear Southend apart, especially in the second half, manager Justin Edinburgh was pleased with what he had seen:

“It’s very pleasing on what was a difficult night with injuries again. We’re disappointed to have gone behind, but Southend started well.”

“Credit to the players, we’ve had two injuries, and that didn’t really disrupt us. It was brilliant to have overcome that, we showed great resilience. The players who came on settled straight in and second half we looked dangerous again.”

The injuries to Max Ehmer and Bradley Dack in the first half were a blow to The Gills with Ehmer stretchered off whilst Dack took a knock to his knee, but Edinburgh is hoping the pair will make swift recoveries:

“Max is fully conscious, he’s fine now. I think after the fall he found it hard to get his breath back and there was a blow to the head. We’re awaiting cautionary scans to check everything is alright.”

“Bradley came down on his knee and jarred it, we’re hoping from a first look at we’re going to be OK on that one. We’ll get it scanned tomorrow and serious, but we’re hoping there’s no serious damage.”

Meanwhile, Edinburgh had nothing but praise for on loan QPR striker Jay Emmanuel-Thomas who bagged his third goal in the space of two games:

“We knew we had to be cautious with him, as he’s not had as many minutes as he’d have liked at QPR pre-season. It was part of our plan to be in the game, bring him on, for the game to open up and for him to affect it. That’s certainly what happened tonight.”

“For somebody of his quality, and what he’s achieved at this level, we knew he’d be an influential player. It’s there for everybody to see why we wanted to bring him into the football club.”

Gillingham will find out their opponents in the Second Round of the EFL Cup at 10pm on Wednesday night and face Bury at home in the league on Saturday.