by Luke Cawdell

Curtis Weston believes a chat with manager Mark Stimson has given him the drive to turn average performances for Gillingham into match-winning ones for the club.

Weston’s 25th-minute goal got Gillingham up and running against Southend in the FA Cup on Saturday and he knows the manager has set the bar high on the level of performances the midfielder should be reaching.

By scoring on Saturday, Weston (pictured) took his goal tally to five, already equalling last season’s total, and he was delighted to meet his manager’s expectations.

Weston said: "We had a chat during the week and he said, ‘you’re doing well, but you could do better’.

"On Saturday I took that into the game and it was in my head. It was a big part of me going on and scoring, and performing better."

Goals are something that boss Mark Stimson expects to see plenty of from the 22-year-old.

Weston said: "At the start of the season he (Stimson) asked if I could bring more goals to my game and I said yes. I don’t know why it didn’t happen last season but now I want to score more goals and I’ve done that so far."

Saturday’s 3-0 FA Cup first round win over Southend took some of the pain away from the previous week’s League 1 defeat at Roots Hall.

"We owed them one," said Weston. "Before the game we hadn’t won in a while and away from home it’s not been good at all."

He added: "Everyone is buzzing now and we just can’t wait for the next game."