ANDY HESSENTHALER watched Guy Ipoua clinch Saturday's crucial 2-0 home win over Walsall and admitted the striker had proved the Gillingham boss wrong. Ipoua's 67th minute solo effort was his second goal in five days and brought welcome relief to players and supporters alike as Gillingham ended a sequence of five straight defeats.

As early doubts over Ipoua's ability to bridge the gap in standards between life in Division 3 with Scunthorpe to Division 1 dissolved, the Gills manager confessed: "Scoring goals in this Division is a big jump for him. He told me when I brought him to the club that he would do the business but I have to be honest and say that at one time I thought it wasn't going to work out.

"Now he's proved me wrong. He's become an absolute handful to Division 1 defences and I thought his goal was terrific. He was a menace all game and I only took him off near the end because he was absolutely shattered."

Though delighted with the win, Hessenthaler injected a note of caution when he added: "It's another game and nobody is getting carried away, least of all me. I've been in the game too long to say brilliant, now we can relax. It's a pressurised job in a pressurised game.

"I was relieved when the second goal went in because it relaxed everyone. It wasn't a fantastic game to watch because we needed to dig in and get a result. But if we get beaten by Burnley on Tuesday, then this result counts for nothing. We've been on a losing run, now we've got to go on a winning run."

The Gills boss was thrilled by the debut of 20-year-old J-Lloyd Samuel, signed on a month's loan from Aston Villa on Friday.

"He was a calming influence and considering he only met the players on Friday he had a fantastic game."

David Perpetuini, who beat Walsall goalkeeper James Walker on his near post to give Gillingham the all-important lead, believes home form is the key to the club's survival. The goal was only the second of his career after scoring for Watford in the Premier League against Southampton.

Walsall manager Ray Graydon paid Gillingham a back-handed compliment after watching his side slip to a sixth successive defeat.

"Gillingham deserved to win," he said. "But if we can't give them a game then we have real problems. We simply weren't good enough on the day."