by Luke Cawdell

Martin Allen was a proud man on Monday night after watching the Gills take three points off Rotherham at Priestfield.

A goal from Deon Burton separated the sides but Allen was keen to stress the collective effort that made the difference.

Allen (pictured) said: “It was a great atmosphere from the supporters and the performance of the players. Rotherham had an extra 24 hours than us to recover and we had 15 pros available for the game.

“We normally make a lot of changes but we kept the same boys out there and it was fantastic.

“We dominated from start to finish. In the last 15 minutes they brought on an extra centre forward and of course that was testing as they gambled, which they had every right to do tactically. We saw it through, saw it out and what a performance from that team.

“Deon will get the headlines but this is a squad, we’re a team, on and off the field we are very strong. We had over 500 supporters at Fleetwood a couple of days ago and it felt like there were 20,000 inside the ground (on Monday). They didn’t stop signing from start to finish.

“Other results have gone our way. Everyone knew that it was April Fools’ Day but there was no way we were going to be the fools.”

Allen was without Charlie Lee (virus) and Bradley Dack (injury), as well as the suspended Andy Frampton, which meant he had to name teenagers from the development squad again on the bench.

He said: “They (Rotherham) have good players, they pay a lot of money and the squad is expensive. We had a 17, 18 and 19-year-old on the bench.

“We decided a few weeks ago not to bring anyone else in and to go with what we’ve got and I suppose it was a bit of a gamble. I could have brought in some extra players to help us through.

“We stuck with what we had, kept our unity and team spirit and gave the younger lads some experience of being involved (with the first team) daily.”

The Gills finished the Easter weekend sitting 11 points clear of fourth place and eight ahead of second placed Port Vale. A win would all-but guarantee promotion next weekend but Allen is remaining cool on the subject.

He said: “It is probably a bit boring to all our supporters. The players who didn’t play were out there on the pitch after the game and some of the players will go to Luton tomorrow (Tuesday) to play in a reserve game to sharpen up. We all keep working forward.

“We have our goal and our targets and we know what we want to do. There is still a lot to play for.”