Luke O’Neill fulfilled his daughter’s birthday wish on Friday.

The defender fired home Gillingham’s second of the night at Fleetwood, in the 2-0 win.

While he was away on Gills duty, his daughter was celebrating her seventh birthday.

The goal was a perfect present.

“I spoke to her afterwards and that was a good feeling,” said the in-form 26-year-old.

“Before the match when we spoke, she said ‘make sure you score for me Daddy’ and that was nice.

“I face-timed her for pretty much the whole day (before the game on Friday). I couldn’t wait to get back to see her!”

The 2-0 win came just four days after their FA Cup exit at the hands of League 2 Carlisle United.

“We wanted to put things right,” he said.

“We were a bit disappointed after the game on Tuesday night, we wanted to be positive and first half especially, we looked positive going forward.

“We got our two goals early on and defended brilliantly. Credit to the boys. We knew we had to put it right and we’ve done that.”

O’Neill now has three goals to his name this season, his latest coming from 25 yards.

He said: “I love getting forward and expressing myself on the ball. We have players in the team who can do that.

“I like coming in and whacking it with my left foot. It was a good goal. It went under Tom Eaves’ legs but I think I had too much power on it, so he couldn’t get to it!”

It’s Oxford United up next for the Gills, at home on Boxing Day.

O’Neill said: “They have some good players but if we can play the way we have been playing, the attacking way, we will be fine. We are at home and we just need to be positive.”