Gills boss Andy Hessenthaler rated Saturday’s 1-0 win at Plymouth as the best of the season after lasting sixty minutes with just ten men.

Joe Martin’s first goal of the season in the 23rd minute was enough to win the game, but Gillingham had to face Plymouth for over an hour a man down after the defender picked up his second booking of the game.

Despite being numerically down on the home side, The Gills clung on for a hard fought for three points that keep them in touch of the play-offs and Hessenthaler was delighted at the full-time whistle:

“Leading up to the game we had to make five changes which forced upon us and it could have been six because Jo Kuffour wasn’t fully fit, but we put him out there.”

“The way we played when we went down to 10 men shows the character we have got at the club and I was proud of them.”

“I thought when we beat Torquay 2-0 when we were under pressure to perform at home following our poor run was our top performance, but this has gone above that.”

“It was great build-up play leading to the goal and it has popped up to Joe and he has got a great strike on him and he showed that with the goal.”

“I am not sure about the sending-off, especially the second yellow, and will look at that on the DVD.” he told the club’s official website.

Indeed, the performance was as good as the result considering Jack Evans (groin), Connor Essam (illness), Curtis Weston (knee), Jack Payne (knee) and Danny Kedwell (hamstring) all missed the game.

To top it off, Simon King (thigh), Gavin Tomlin (hamstring) and Jo Kuffour (knee) all came off with injuries. All eight must be considered doubts for Barnet’s visit to Priestfield on Tuesday night with Andy Frampton, Barry Fuller, Ross Flitney, Matt Fish and Adam Birchall already sidelined, while Martin will miss the game through suspension.

The plus side for Hessenthaler was loan signings Oliver Lee and Jordan Obita both put in good shifts, Garry Richards and Callum Davies put up strong resistance late on in the second half, youngster Ashley Miller showed what a talent he could be and there was a return amongst the subtitutes for midfielder Danny Spiller who has missed the last six months with an ankle injury.

At this rate, there could be a case for 46 year old Hessenthaler and 40 year old Nicky Southall to dig their old boots out and get registered!