Boss Ady Pennock has urged Gillingham’s fans to back his boys after several were made to eat their words on Saturday.

Tom Eaves was under fire from some of his own supporters during a tricky first half at Priestfield but the striker responded with a second-half treble to silence the boo boys.

“It was brilliant for Tom,” said Pennock. “He works so hard. In the first half he was getting some stick from his own fans and it was a nice way of keeping them quiet.

“I said to him at half-time, ‘don’t worry about that, we believe in you’. We have to have that mentality, that siege mentality. It’s us versus the world at the moment.

“We have great togetherness in that changing room, unbelievable. It has been top drawer.

“The boys have been getting some unfair criticism but we have to stick together, that’s everyone at the football club.

“People keep telling me we have the smallest budget in the league, ‘so what?’ We just get on with it.

“The chairman has worked his socks off, going here, there and everywhere to get some backers, and for people to come and help out. Everyone connected to the club has got to stick together.

“The fans have been absolutely top drawer. We are not going to please everyone but we have got players who really care for the club, 100% in every game and again it showed."

Pennock hasn’t had the cash to splash like others in League 1 but is backing his boys to keep the club out of trouble.

“We have to be patient and give these young lads a chance,” he said.

“It was like a cup game (on Saturday), it was so open and I don’t like it when it’s that open. But we had that never-say-die attitude and I would go to war with these boys.

“We have some young lads in the side, but we need to stick with them. We can’t go out and get £5-6,000 a week players, so we need to bring the youth through."