Justin Edinburgh felt the Gills were back to their best during Saturday’s match.

His team had under-performed in the last few outings, but at times dominated against their hosts Crawley, emerging as deserved winners.

Gills boss Edinburgh said: “We got back to where we were when I first arrived. We had that belief and got the right players in the right areas.

“We looked fresher and we had more threat, more pace and I was very pleased.

“We had a lot of possession in the first half and worked the ball well.

“If I was being critical, our crossing from wide areas, certainly first half, could have been better and had we got a bit better quality into the box we could have caused Crawley more problems in the first half.

“To come away and have as much possession as we did, against a team that have just won three consecutive football matches, it was a very good performance.”

Jermaine McGlashan scored the winning goal with nine minutes left. Bradley Dack’s first half effort had been cancelled out in the second half.

The victory ended a run of four games without a win for Edinburgh’s men and that came despite resting leading scorer Cody McDonald.

Edinburgh said: “I spoke with Cody and if we are going to give Luke Norris a chance he is going to have to play more than one game. John was rested last week and Cody was given a bit of a breather this week.

“We have got three or four very good strikers in that area. It is not about being dropped, it is about keeping things fresh and making sure everyone gets a fair crack.

“We knew this was going to be a tough game. They had won their last three games and we knew with the following we had, we had to put on a show and we certainly did that.”

The Gills were backed by 1,111 away fans, who were making plenty of noise in the terrace behind one end of the ground.

“It was brilliant, absolutely fantastic,” said a thrilled Gills boss.