Winning mattered for the Gills at Tonbridge, insisted boss Justin Edinburgh.

His side looked to be heading for a draw against non-league Tonbridge Angels before John Egan – at fault for the home side’s equaliser – popped up with the winner.

“Every game is important and I don’t care what it is,” said Edinburgh after the 2-1 win.

“Other managers can say what they like but winning breeds confidence and it is a good habit.

Every game matters. If people think it doesn’t matter and then it does on August 8 (the season opener) then I disagree. I said that to the players. It does matter. You don’t want to be drawing or getting beat. You want to win.”

Striker Luke Norris opened the scoring in the first half.

“You can draw confidence from those goals,” said the manager.

“We have worked really hard on the training ground, the boys have been absolutely fantastic in their attitude and their efforts and their application and that has rounded off with two good results.

“We had a tough game in tough conditions, the pitch was a bit sticky, but we want to win every game we play in, that is obvious for me.

“There were some real positives to take and some disappointments. It is about ironing out those negative things and continuing to press on the positives.”

Egan’s weak header proved costly, as Tonbridge levelled from it, but the Irishman struck with three minutes left to win it for the Gills.

“He needed to do that after his poor play for the opposition goal,” said the manager.

“He has to deal with that and he knows it. He is a good pro and he knows what his standards are. He is better than that and he knows it.

“They are the things we need to iron out. We need to make sure we don’t come up against those miss-concentrations and that would be the big disappointment, in conceding that goal.”