Striker praises determination of squad...
Deon Burton said that everybody played their part in the club’s 2-1 win over Rotherham at the New York Stadium on Saturday afternoon.The striker scored both goals in a strong performance from the Gills who had to defend for long periods to clinch all three points, although the chances they did get were clinically taken by the 36-year-old who has been in good form of late.
Following the game he said: “It was backs against the wall once we went 2-0 up and to be fair to the team, every player to a man stuck in there, worked hard, even the ones that came off the bench did their fair share of graft and work too to make sure we got the victory.
“Everyone did their part. When the subs came on, especially Weston when he came on, eased a bit of the pressure with his pace.”
Deon was heckled by the fans from start to finish having left the club in 2006 to join rivals Sheffield Wednesday, but he said at his age he has played enough games to not let that affect him.
He said: “You’d have thought they’d have got over it, it was six or seven years ago. I’m old enough not to let it phase me; it didn’t bother me in the slightest.
“To be fair it does spur you on, you thrive off it, when you get a bit of stick you want to give a bit back in the right way. Hopefully I did that with the two goals.
“That’s what we got told to do, silence the crowd with our feet and luckily that’s what we did.
“If you look at the last five or six games we’ve not been playing at our best but we are still top of the league.
“We have been grafting out draws here and there just to keep our heads above water. When we get the situation like this we came here and worked our socks off to get the win and open up the gap again.
“Fair play to all the boys, Nelson pulled off a world class save in the second half, I know he enjoyed it. It was good.”
Burton said that the Gills team like to play attractive football, but conceded that at times they need to stick at it and grind out a result when they are having to defend for large parts of the match.
He said: “You would like to always play nice football and get it down and get four or five passes in and get it wide and then cross it in the box but it is not always like that.
“You’ve got to do the hard stuff sometimes, graft and get 11 men behind the ball, defend and work hard as a unit. We’ve got that balance that we can adapt to go back to that hard, rugged defensive team that’s hard to beat.”
Burton is quickly catching strike partner Danny Kedwell’s tally of goals for this season, but the former Premiership forward isn’t particularly concerned about that and says as long as someone is scoring the Gills will stay at the top.
He said: “It doesn’t matter who is scoring, everyone is working hard. Danny was playing centre midfield in the second half after I came off. Everyone is adapting and moving around the pitch and working hard for the result.
“It’s helped by the team I have got around me, if they weren’t there to assist me and getting in the right positions I wouldn’t be able to score them. It’s credit to the whole 11, not just myself.”
Deon commented on the injury suffered by Romain Vincelot in the second half where the French midfielder was attended to by several members of medical before being taken to hospital, and although he said it was difficult to watch, he believes it is part of the modern game.
He said: “I think he was in shock and that’s why he was having a little but of a fit or whatever but he came round. It’s tough (to see it) but it’s part and parcel of the game.
“Like with the centre half I caught in the first minute - you don’t mean to catch him but you want to push your arms up for leverage to jump up high. You get on with it.”
It was later confirmed that Romain Vincelot suffered no serious injury and was able to travel back with the rest of the first team squad.