Gillingham 2 Crewe 0

GILLS boss Andy Hessenthaler hailed his team’s performance as “fantastic”, after they romped to a 2-0 win over Crewe on Saturday.

Second half goals from Paul Shaw -- his third in three games -- and Danny Spiller saw Gills rise to 16th in the Nationwide Division 1 table.

The Gills boss, forced to shuffle his defence due to the suspension of Ian Cox and Chris Hope, was particularly satisfied with the three points.

He said: “Our performance was fantastic considering the problems we have got through injuries and suspensions.

“Crewe are a good passing team but I thought that we did well ourselves. Paul Shaw’s goal was a good finish and then Danny Spiller did well for the second.

“We should have never gone in 0-0 at half time, but we came out and upped the tempo again.

“I’m well pleased today. Our performances in the last few weeks have been good, even against Sunderland in midweek when we lost.

“We have won three out of the last four and if we get three points against Wimbledon next week we can jump into the top half of the table.”

But Hessenthaler was involved in the game’s flash point when he clashed with Kenny Lunt eight minutes from the end, which resulted in the Crewe man being given his marching orders.

He added: “The ref saw it as a foul from me, but I didn't think it was. He gave it and there was a little bit of a scuffle and he kicked out at me which is why I reacted the way I did.

“I got booked, he got sent off having already been booked, and it's unfortunate but these things happen. The only reason I reacted the way that I did was that he kicked out at me.”

Meanwhile, Mamady Sidibe has joined up with his Mali team-mates ahead of their World Cup qualifier on Friday night.

Hessenthaler was initially going to try and stop him going with Gills having injuries up front but the player-manager decided it was better that the player went.

Hessenthaler said he didn't want to harm the player's chances of playing in the African nations Cup in January.

He said: “He’s playing in a World Cup qualifier on Friday night, the night before the Wimbledon game, so he'll miss that.

“So fingers crossed that we get Rod back, and there's a good chance of that, and Nyron who has gone from right back to centre half could end up playing up front next Saturday.”