Tom Flanagan enjoys the moment after opening the scoring for Gills, above, and, below right, Myles Weston stands his ground. Pictures: Barry Goodwin

Gillingham hit four goals at home for the second time in a row as they saw off in-form Burton at Priestfield.

Defenders Tom Flanagan and Matt Fish netted their first goals of the season to put the Gills 2-0 up at the break.

That lead was cut in half when Zander Diamond struck for the visitors but Myles Weston restored the two-goal cushion moments later and Joe Martin hit Gills’ fourth.

Victory maintained Gills’ three-point lead at the top of League 2.

Gillingham were without David Wright – after his loan deal from Crystal Palace expired – and Lewis Montrose was the man selected to fill the void in the defensive midfield role.

And it was Montrose who unlocked the Burton defence after just 15 seconds, with a pin-point ball through to Weston, but the Gills forward fired wide.

It was an opening half with chance after chance for the Gills - watched by a season best crowd of 7,268 - and with some neat build-up play.

Burton had players to do some damage themselves and big striker Calvin Zola put a couple of good chances wide.

But the half belonged to the Gills and with 21 minutes played they got a deserved opener as Flanagan latched on to Danny Kedwell’s deflected shot and smashed it into the net from six yards. It was the defender’s first goal in Gills colours.

Jack Payne and the lively Chris Whelpdale both volleyed narrowly wide within seconds of each other and visiting keeper Stuart Tomlinson had to be alert to parry Weston’s long shot wide.

A second goal finally came seven minutes before the interval. Charlie Allen’s chip was only half cleared and Fish hit a shot that, with the aid of a deflection, beat keeper Tomlinson to double the advantage.

Burton, who had been unbeaten in eight before their visit to Priestfield, were still a threat and Adam Barrett produced an acrobatic clearance to hook Matt Paterson’s shot off the line. The Burton man was already celebrating.

Half-time substitute Bradley Dack was in the thick of it early in the second half. Within seconds of coming on he earned a booking for a challenge on Calvin Zola and seconds later was in the right place to clear Diamond’s header off the line.

It was turning into a day for defenders as Diamond, the Burton central defender, struck a low shot past Stuart Nelson to half the deficit with 55 minutes played.

Four minutes later and Weston struck his fourth goal of the season to make it 3-1. He ran on to a ball from Kedwell, beat the defender and then smashed a low shot across Tomlinson. Gills had a fourth just five minutes after that when Martin struck a shot from 20 yards into the roof of the net.

It could have got worse for Burton, when Robbie Findley was tripped by the last covering player, but referee Lee Collins waved Robbie Weir away with just a yellow card.

Dack almost rounded off the win with a fifth goal for the Gills but Tomlinson saved with his legs.

Burton: Tomlinson, O'Connor, Diamond, Kiernan, McCrory, Dyer, Bell, Weir, Maghoma (Taylor 77mins), Paterson (Kee 68mins), Zola (Richards 68mins). Subs not used: Atkins, Corbett, Stanton.

Gillingham: Nelson, Fish, Martin, Barrett, Flanagan, Payne (Dack 46mins), Montrose, Whelpdale, Allen, Weston (Findley 62mins), Kedwell (Strevens 66mins). Subs not used: Frampton, Davies, Burton, Forecast.

Attendance: 7,268