Lively Gillingham front-man Danny Lloyd picked up a serious looking injury just before Ipswich Town scored a winning goal at Portman Road.

Gillingham battled well to keep Ipswich relatively quiet in the opening half and twice hit the woodwork after the break before Conor Chaplin’s strike with 16 minutes left separated the sides.

It had been a brave and at times impressive Gillingham against an underwhelming Ipswich side and they were unlucky not to have claimed something from the trip.

Gills boss Neil Harris handed former Millwall man Ben Thompson his debut while striker Vadaine Oliver returned to the starting XI.

The Gills were playing a side who had thrashed them 4-0 at Priestfield the previous month but were at Portman Road with a new manager and renewed belief.

It was the visiting Gills who had the game’s first chance when Danny Lloyd made home keeper Christian Walton work with a set-piece strike.

Ipswich put a couple of good early opportunities wide of the mark with Joe Pigott off target with a header and Dominic Thompson unable to convert after Wes Burns’ low shot had been parried into his path. George Edmundson also missed with a couple of headers.

Gillingham newcomer Thompson tried his luck from distance, after a great touch opened up some space, but the ball sailed just the wrong side of the post.

The Gills were winning possession in good areas through their hard work, with Lloyd again showing plenty of energy up top, catching the home defence out on several occasions.

There was some booing from the Portman Road crowd as the sides went off level at the break without a goal scored. It hadn’t been one-way traffic either with the Gills engineering a couple of decent chances during a solid first 45.

Oliver had a good early chance for the Gills after taking a long ball forward down on his chest, but with a weighted effort that beat the keeper he couldn’t beat the upright, with the ball bouncing off the woodwork. Moments later the Gills had another chance with Oliver just unable to pick out Lloyd for a shooting chance.

Gillingham kept the pressure up - while the home crowd got more frustrated - and a combination of the goalframe and Walton denied Lloyd from close range after the busy forward got on the end of Jack Tucker’s ball into the box.

With an hour gone the Gills were well in it but suffered a blow when Lloyd was stretchered off with a leg injury.

A last-gasp challenge denied Oliver a scoring chance when play resumed, as Olly Lee capitalised on some sloppy play at the back from Ipswich.

Ipswich scored their goal against the run of play and it was a lucky one for the goalscorer Chaplin. Edmundson played him in, the first touch was poor but it bounced off his head and fell nicely to finish past Gills keeper Aaron Chapman.

Harris put an extra striker on with the introduction of Tom Dickson-Peters as Gills finished with three up top for the final stages of the match but couldn’t find a way through as Ipswich held on.

Gillingham: Chapman, McKenzie, Tutonda, Tucker, Ehmer (Phillips 90mins), Masterson, O’Keefe, Thompson (Dickson-Peters 79mins), Lee, Lloyd (Kelman 68mins), Oliver. Subs not used: Dahlberg, Jackson, Sithole, Maghoma.

Ipswich: Walton, Edmundson, Woolfenden, Burns (Edwards 54mins), Evans, Chaplin (Bakinson 84mins), Thompson, Carroll, Donacien, Pigott (Bonne 79mins), Norwood. Subs not used: Hladky, Jackson, Burgess, Celina.

Attendance: 20,698 (486 away)

Referee: Stephen Martin