Gillingham bounced back to winning form with a battling 2-0 Division 1 home victory against Crewe Alexandra on Saturday.

Andy Hessenthaler's side created the better openings in the first period but consistently found the mid-rift of Alex goalkeeper Clayton Ince.

However, the hosts were a little unfortunately not to be awarded a penalty after 21 minutes when David Perpetuini was upended in the box. But the referee waved away the Gillingham appeals.

The pattern of play began to change in the second period as Crewe created some good chances but Dean Ashton headed against a post and Steve Jones saw his 63rd minute shot from the edge of the box tipped away by Jason Brown.

The save proved the turning point of the match, as Gills scored within one minute when Paul Shaw latched onto a through ball before finding the far corner of the net with a low drive.

Perpuitini doubled the home side's lead on 71 minute when he converted Nyron Nosworthy's left wing cross with a close range finish.

Any hope Crewe had of turning the game around disappeared in the 81st minutes when Kenny Lunt received a second yellow card after an altercation with Hessenthaler.