Martin Allen looks on as the Gills celebrate the title Pic: Barry Goodwin

by Luke Cawdell

Saturday's title winning point was a "money can’t buy" experience for Martin Allen.

The Gills boss had never won a title before, as a player or manager, and he was savouring every second.

“It is absolutely amazing,” he said.

“It’s been 10 months of hard work and thankfully we have a fantastic group of players and staff behind the scenes who have just kept going all the way through, getting points and breaking records.

“Gillingham hadn’t won a championship in 50 years, so to be the manager on such a special day was an amazing feeling. It is highlight of my career there is no doubt about it.

“It’s like a lottery win, like Christmas day and money can’t buy that. It’s priceless.”

Allen is from a family with a rich tradition of success in football and he was thrilled to have stamped his mark on the game as a manager, having twice won promotion as a player.

“You try and do the job to the best of your ability and you need good supporters and help from your staff and help from the senior players,” he said.

“Mr Scally, from above, has been very helpful to me and hasn’t criticised me whether we have won games and changed five players and done mad things.

“We have done brave things and I am very privileged and proud to be the manager of champions of this division.

“I was the worst Allen in the family. All of the others are multi-talented and I had the nickname Mad Dog.

“I had been known as a manager who just keeps clubs up, last minute.com. To have turned that around and to have got promotion and then to be champions after a year is unbelievable.”

Reflecting on the game, which seemed secondary on a game of celebration, Allen admitted it was tense at the end, as his team went from 2-0 ahead to be hanging on at the end.

“Let’s not kid ourselves, the last 15-20 minutes were testing and tricky,” he said.

“They were obviously going to throw people forward. We were edgy, and we were nervy but hey-ho that’s going to happen. It was always going to be like that.

“But thank God we held on, with some fantastic blocks and fantastic tackles. It was edgy and nervy but the bottom line was we got the point that we needed. Over the year that’s what we have been like all the way through.

“To have done it infront of our own supporters was magic, absolute magic.”