Gillingham manager Andy Hessenthaler was pleased with his team’s performance despite being held on home soil by Port Vale.

The Gills bossed much of Saturday's game but in the end needed a penalty to claim a League 2 point.

Hessenthaler (pictured instructing Danny Kedwell) said: “The players are a bit disappointed but I’m not and I can sleep quite easily after that performance. On another day we would have won the game.

“We didn’t win it but I was pleased with the boys as they kept going. We got a little bit of fortunate with the retake of the penalty and I think we earned that luck because we haven’t had that over the last few games, especially in front of goal.”

Hessenthaler’s only gripe was the lack of finishing and a sloppy moment at the back which led to Vale’s first half opener.

He said: “I would hate to see the stats again because I think that’s three games now, second half at Wimbledon, against Barnet in the JPT, and now this one where we have dominated but we haven’t punished teams.

“You have to give Port Vale credit because they make it very difficult and they are strong, they defend for their lives, but I couldn’t have asked for any more from my players. I thought they were terrific.”

Marc Richards had given Vale a 33rd minute lead.

“(They scored from a) diagonal ball, which we told the players about, and that’s disappointing,” said the Gills boss.

“We worked on the way they play. They get the ball in and look for Tom Pope and he is very good in the air. Matt Fish was out-muscled a little bit and then we switched off with the knock down. We were too deep in that instance really, but we could have also stopped the ball from going in there quicker.

“That was us switching off, as normal, which is disappointing.

“We were pretty flat after going in at half-time 1-0 down, because we have dominated the game, but not scored. We told the players to keep their heads up and they did.

“They started well and in the end got the penalty. We should have really gone on from there but I thought we dropped off them a little bit and we weren’t doing the things we were doing (before).

“Over the course of the game I was delighted with the performance and I just told them to keep doing what they are doing, because this could be the start of a decent run, if we believe in ourselves.”

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Picture: Barry Goodwin