by Luke Cawdell

Andy Hessenthaler admitted that he was 20 minutes away from not selecting match-winner Adebayo Akinfenwa for Saturday’s match against Stevenage.

The striker, who had six goals before Saturday’s game, was struggling with illness and Hessenthaler was ready to rest him.

A last minute change of heart, however, led to the Gills boss selecting him and he was rewarded with the big striker netting the all-important winner.

“I’m delighted I played him,” said Hessenthaler. “At 20 to two I wasn’t playing him, he was badly struggling with flu. He’s had it for a few days and he had it before the Port Vale game and it wasn’t as bad then.

“I wasn’t going to play him as I was thinking about Monday but in the end I thought, ‘what’s the most important game?’ That was the next game (against Stevenage) so I ended up playing him and I’m pleased he did because he ended up scoring the winner.”

And Hessenthaler praised the quality cross that led to the goal from Danny Spiller.

He said: “It was a great ball and it was all about the ball in for me. As a centre-forward you relish those types of crosses.”

The Gills were forced to hang on at times as Stevenage threatened to put an end to the impressive winning run.

“It was a tough game and fatigue showed a bit in our team,” Hessenthaler admitted. “They (Stevenage) hadn’t played (on Tuesday) whereas we had a real tough game against Port Vale and put a lot of effort into it.

"We kept the same 18 players and we did look a bit tired near the end. These are the kind of games we need to win and grind out and that’s what we did.

“They had quite a bit of the ball at times, where again we were a little too deep. The number nine (Griffin) was dropping in behind and causing us some problems but we adjusted that in the second half, tried to get up the pitch a bit higher and we really limited them in the second half to just corners and long throws. They are dangerous at that but I thought we defended for our lives.

“That’s five wins on the bounce, another clean sheet and what more can you ask?”

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Gills boss Andy Hessenthaler celebrates at the final whistle with Andy Barcham Picture: Barry Goodwin