Ade Pennock saw his Gillingham side earn a first victory in the ninth game under his charge, as the Kent side beat Essex neighbours, Southend United, for a third time this season.

Josh Wright, revelling in a more advanced role under Pennock’s stewardship, scored a brace to extend his recent scoring run to six goals in eight games, as Gillingham held off a late consolation from Nile Ranger to secure a crucial three points against their 10-man opponents.

Pennock admitted “it’s fantastic, we deserved that.  We’ve been so close in the draws that we’ve had.  Even when we lost at Coventry, I thought that we were so good second half that we should have taken something from the game.  To a man, everyone involved in the squad, the players deserved those three points because of the effort they put in.”

“They are a good side (Southend), a very good side, and it just shows that even with ten men, it’s always difficult to play against that, but I’m absolutely delighted with that three points.”

The task for Gillingham ahead of the game was made much harder by a lengthening injury list, and Pennock explained “we’d lost Deji (Oshilaja) and Garms (Bradley Garmston) and knew they were going to be out. Herdy (Chris Herd) came in today feeling sore after an awkward fall yesterday, Mark Byrne has a sore hamstring, and Bradley (Dack) felt his hamstring yesterday as well.  We’ve had to shuffle the pack, but I thought that Zesh (Rehman) and Joe (Quigley) were two good additions to the squad.  I literally looked round the whole world for options, and Zesh had just finished his pre-season in Malaysia, so he was fit and ready to go.”

“Josh Wright has got that great knack of nicking goals at the moment and has been fantastic.  He took his penalty well; not that I saw it, I had to turn away, but everybody was top drawer today.  I’ve had to pat everyone on the back, as every single one deserved those three points.”

Apart from the one enforced substitution in the first half, when Rory Donnelly became the lastest player in the treatment room, Pennock said that he felt he didn’t want to change his team.  He said “I wanted the guys to be brave because they (Southend) were just going to pump the ball forward, and Nile Ranger was a real handful when he came on.  I didn’t want to sit back and let them come onto us, I wanted us to hit them on the counter attack.  Going in a 2-nil, I wanted us to be positive because the next goal was crucial.  When they got it (with 7 minutes left) it got their tails up and as a team we dropped back.  We’re still hunting for that clean sheet.”

Gillingham’s hopes of the first win in 12 were given a boost after their second goal when Southend defender Ryan Inness received a second yellow card deep in first half stoppage time.  Pennock thought “it was a yellow card, the second one.  I didn’t even know he’d received one earlier, but it’s a definite yellow; he’s tripped our lad up.  The referee did take so long though, but I don’t want to talk about Southend, or the referee, I just want to talk about what a big three points this was.”

“The changing room has been first class, and even in the draws and losses that we’ve had, I feel we should have got something out of those games.  This is an even bigger result for us because I firmly believe Southend with be there or thereabouts for the playoffs at the end of the season.  But I’ve got full belief in my players.  I don’t feel the pressure, but obviously my family do.”  Pennock, sitting next to his youngest son Nathan, added “they live in Gillingham, and when the little one goes to school and gets asked “why did your dad do this in the game”, it’s not easy for them.  All I and my staff can do is our best every single day and keep being prepared as best as we can.”

“Overall, I’m very proud of the squad today, but now we’ve got to move on to Tuesday.  We’ve got to be proud of our wins, we’ll enjoy tonight, and I’ll be in tomorrow with the injured players – those that played will have the day off – ahead of the Swindon game.  We’ve got to build on this, with Swindon winning today, so that makes it a big result for us.  There’s a little bit of history between us and Swindon, so it will be a big game for us on Tuesday.  They are one of the teams around us.”

“They are fighting for their lives, just like us, so we know they will be a threat.  We’ve got to see how our players are tomorrow, because everyone has got bumps and bruises from today.  We’ve got big games coming up, away at Swindon and Bury, but we are looking forward to them.”