by Luke Cawdell

Andy Hessenthaler was a proud man despite seeing his side crash out of the FA Cup on Saturday.

The Gillingham manager saw his side take the lead against Premier League Stoke City before succumbing to the higher-league opposition.

Hessenthaler (pictured) rued the brief spells in the game where his side switched off and got punished.

He said: "After the first 35 minutes, when we were 1-0 up, there was pretty much only one team in the game and that was us.

"We had a good spell, but then unfortunately in the last 10 minutes of the first half we got punished and it let them back in the game and lifts them."

The Gills went into the break 2-1 down and conceded a third shortly after the restart.

"We've switched off and we got punished," he said. "At 3-1 it's then a mountain to climb, but I was proud of the boys.

"I thought they were terrific against a strong Premiership side and we can come out of the game with a lot of credit. There are a lot of positives that we can take into the rest of our league programme."

Much of the pre-match hype surrounded the history of Gills chairman Paul Scally and former boss Tony Pulis - now the manager at Stoke.

"It wasn't about Tony Pulis and our chairman, it was about a game of football," said the Gills boss.

"I thought the game was a good one and we can take a lot of credit. They are a strong side and Tony showed us a lot of respect with the team that they put out and we gave it a right go."

The Gills faced a physical and direct threat all afternoon and lost striker Danny Kedwell to a cracked rib midway through the second half.

"We knew that it would be tough against them with the long throw but there are a lot of Premiership teams that they play against who find it very difficult, so a club like us are going to find it difficult.

"All-in-all I was pleased with the boys without a doubt.

"As a manager, against a Premiership side, there is a worry that we could get a little humiliated, because that can happen. That was our concern but we said to the players 'go out and don't let the game pass you by. Concentrate by giving everything for the shirt and for the club and then we can't ask any more from you.'

"We did that and we played some decent stuff at times. We had 12 corners in the game but at times our quality wasn't great but when there were good balls going in there they defended well. They deal with situations in both boxes very well and it's difficult."

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