GILLINGHAM boss Andy Hessenthaler believes the players showed the passion and pride needed to play for the club in the 1-0 home victory over Crystal Palace on Saturday.

After four defeats on the bounce, coupled with the financial problems at the club, morale could have dropped within the camp.

However, Hessenthaer says the team could now have turned the corner ahead of their lucrative Carling Cup third round trip to Premiership Bolton Wanderers tomorrow (Tuesday) night.

He said: “We played with a lot of passion and pride and wanted to turn the corner and get us up and running again. I think that showed in the performance.

“The financial side of things are tough on everybody but we just have to get on with it and stick together. I thought the supporters were absolutely magnificent and stayed with us all the way.

“We have taken a lot of positives from the four games that we have lost. The performances have been very good especially in the last two games.”

Gills went into the Palace game without Marlon King after the club’s top scorer suffered a recurrence of a hamstring injury in training.

Missing their main attacking threat and after wasting some good chances in the first half, Gills probably thought it wasn’t to be their day when Chris Hope was sent-off and Palace were awarded a penalty early in the second half.

But Jason Brown saved Dougie Freedman’s spot kick and Gills went on to win the game thanks to David Perpetuini's late strike.

Hessenthaler said: “Obviously when we were down to 10 men, you think it’s gone against us again, and I was thinking the worst before the penalty was taken.

“But Jason Brown made the save and I believed then that we could get something out of the game. I thought we were capable of getting at least a point, but fortunately for us we’ve gone up the other end and got the winning goal.

“We deserved it because our performance, especially in the first half, was tremendous.”