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Vadaine Oliver netted twice on Saturday but admitted he was fuming with himself.
The striker struck twice in five minutes to cancel out Swindon’s first half lead but missed a great chance to complete a 12-minute hat-trick when he put a free header over the bar.
Oliver has scored six goals in his last five games but hasn’t bagged a treble since netting a hat-trick for Lincoln City in the Conference eight years ago - ironically the team the Gills visit next.
“I was fuming!” he said, after Gillingham’s 3-1 win.
“That is one of my strongest parts of my game. I was hanging there but I put too much power on it. I was fuming because I could have got a hat-trick.”
The Gillingham top scorer has scored 14 goals in his 40 appearances now this season. His weekend double helped keep the play-off dream alive as the Gills turned around a 1-0 half-time deficit.
“It is massive and great to get a couple more goals,” he said.
“Credit to the boys, they dug in and showed what they were about second half, it is the kind of form we have to take into every game from now to the end of the season. We have a massive chance and we don't want to miss that opportunity.
“I am riding the wave and thankfully things are dropping for me.”
Oliver needed medical treatment for his first goal, nodding in from close range after John Akinde’s effort came off the bar. He took a boot in the face for his troubles.
His second was scored from a tight angle after a mix-up at the back, rounding the keeper before his precision low shot crept in.
“When you are full of confidence the angle wasn’t an issue,” he said. “I knew if I hit the target it would go in.”
The header that missed came off an inch-perfect Jordan Graham cross while he almost came close to getting the last touch on Kyle Dempsey’s free-kick that deceived the keeper to make it 3-1.
Two goals will do though and the Gills head to Lincoln City on Tuesday a point closer to the play-offs, now just four adrift.
Oliver - who scored 11 goals in 22 starts during his season at Lincoln - said: “Away to Lincoln is going to be hard but we are confident that we can cause them a problem. Second or third in the league doesn’t mean they can’t be beaten.”
Lowly Rochdale proved that by beating Lincoln 2-1 at Sincil Bank on Saturday.
