by Luke Cawdell

Andy Hessenthaler was delighted with the team’s 5-2 victory over Torquay on Saturday, but knows they still need to tighten up defensively.

The Gills held a 2-0 lead at the break, but were pegged back to 2-2 early in the second half before adding three more goals to finish Torquay off.

It was a roller-coaster performance that Hessenthaler admitted was tough to watch from the sidelines.

He said: “The game was too stretched, and I am sure the Torquay manager Martin Ling will say the same.

“It was good for the spectators, but a nightmare for us sat on the bench.

“We were 2-0 ahead at half-time and we said that was a dangerous scoreline. (We knew) if we conceded early we would have a problem and that’s exactly what we did.

“At 2-2 I thought there was only going to be one winner and it wasn’t us.

“We got the penalty, though, and Rooney did what he does best. He was very composed and that’s when we came alive again.

“We got the next goal and we were comfortable in the end.

“I felt at times we were defending too deep and we are our own worst enemies, but all-in-all, I can t be too disappointed to have scored five goals away from home and taken the three points.”

Hessenthaler will be working hard this week to try and get his squad to cut out the errors, having seen them concede two goals early in the second half.

“It was heart in mouth time and I felt maybe we had lost our way,” he said.

“We have to cut out the errors. It was an individual thing on Saturday.

“I had words with Garry Richards after the first half where they had a number of corners and they were getting on the end of them.

“We worked before the game on set plays, for and against, and we have these teams watched.

“We didn’t deal with the threat and I wasn’t happy. What do we then do second half straight away? We conceded from a corner.

“The fella had a free header and we are making games hard for ourselves.”

Do you agree with Hessenthaler's assessment of the win at Torquay? How do you think Gills should avoid the mistakes? Have your say below.