Gillingham boss Steve Lovell was proud of his men on Saturday.

They put in a hard-working shift at Portsmouth to clinch a 2-0 win over the league leaders.

“I’m very proud of them,” Lovell said.

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Report and pictures: Portsmouth 0 Gillingham 2

“I have been quite critical of certain players in the last few weeks and I did that for a reason. Sometimes players do need a kick up the behind.

“It showed that we have got what it takes to win games in this league. I have never had any doubt, I said all along, it is a belief I have always had and sometimes some of the players don’t believe in themselves. It just shows that anything can happen in football.

“Nobody gave us a chance, only us as a group. If everyone put in everything, then we could get something out of it, and that’s what happened.”

The Gills went into the break 2-0 up with strikes from Tom Eaves and Alex Lacey.

Lovell said: “We have got players with quality in the side that can go and hurt teams, it doesn’t matter where they are in the league and that is what happened, they thoroughly deserved it.

“Obviously they are going to put some pressure on second half but we defended really well as a group, the plan that we had worked. It was something we had worked on all week, how we are going to defend and attack with two different formations that we had, the diamond going forward and 4-4-1-1 defensively to stop them, it worked.

“It is a great result and I am very proud of them, all the boys, they have given everything and they thoroughly deserved it.”