Gillingham 3, Crystal Palace 0

GILLINGHAM manager Andy Hessenthaler lavished praise on his side after they hauled themselves away from the danger zone last night. His men swarmed all over their South London rivals.

The Priestfield boss said: "We were a little bit shaky in the first 10 minutes and took our time to settle down but once we got the first goal I thought we were just too strong for them. The three guys up front were causing Palace all sorts of problems and our midfielders were winning the second ball.

"Barry Ashby and Chris Hope were both told to do a job on their front two, Dougie Freedman and Clinton Morrison, who are on fire at the moment and they kept them quiet all night."

He added: "It's nice that we have kept a clean sheet in our last three games and to score three goals and the three points has jumped us four places up the table which is also very good. I thought all my lads were first class tonight and you can't really pick any individual out. It was a great team performance."

However, Hessenthaler did single out striker Guy Ipoua who scored twice and took his goal tally to six for the season. He said: "He can be frustrating at times but he is unbelievable as well. He had a fantastic game and he was desperate to score his hat-trick and probably tried a little too hard."

The opening strike came after only nine minutes when Ipoua burst onto a Marcus Browning through ball before slotting into the net from the edge of the box. The home side extended their advantage on the 20 minute mark when Ipoua's strike partner Iffy Onuora crashed a fierce drive into the corner of the net from 20 yards.

If that wasn't good enough for the Gills supporters, things got even better on 33 minutes as Ipoua grabbed his second of the night with a precise volley. The second period was a tigher affair but, although the visitors did create a couple of decent chances, Palace couldn't find the back of the net and had to go back to London with nothing.