Andy Hessenthaler leaves the field with his coach Nicky Southall Picture: Barry Goodwin

by Luke Cawdell

Gillingham manager Andy Hessenthaler praised his team’s defensive efforts after keeping promotion-chasing Port Vale locked out.

The Gills restricted the Valiants to shots from distance and keeper Alan Julian didn’t have a shot on target to save in Tuesday's 3-0 win.

Hessenthaler (pictured) said: “I’m absolutely delighted and the players have got to take all the credit.

“We were a little apprehensive before the match, as I’m sure Micky Adams (Vale manager) was because of the break we’ve had. This was our first home game for many a week, we had a bit of momentum going on and in the end we’ve kept that going with a tremendous performance.

“They had quite a bit of the ball and one thing we did was defend very resiliently and it was probably the most collective performance this season. I didn’t think we looked in any trouble. They have conceded 10 goals and have the best defensive record in the league and we just popped three past them. It’s testament to the lads and I’m delighted.”

Hessenthaler watched Arsenal dismantle Chelsea the day before in the Premier League on television and took delight in seeing his own side do likewise.

“What we’ve done over the last few weeks is when we haven’t got the ball we need to be harder to play against. Before it was too easy,” he said.

“I watched Arsenal and how hard they work when they lose the ball? It was unbelievable. That’s why they scored the goals they did because they won it high up and they put pressure on the football as soon as they lost it. That’s what we did.

“We let them have the ball at times. We perhaps defended a bit too deep in the first half and that was a little concerning but they didn’t get in behind us and in the end we frustrated them and they ran out of ideas in the second half.”

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