Joe Martin reveals his relief after claiming win at Crewe
Joe Martin conceded it was `a huge relief` to finally claim the club’s first victory this season after a dominant 3-0 win over Crewe Alexandra on Saturday.
The left-back, along with Cody McDonald and Adam Barrett, got on the score sheet as the Gills produced their best performance of the campaign to date to brush Crewe aside and take maximum points.
After the game he said: “It’s a massive relief – it’s been a long time coming, our performances have been pretty good but it’s getting that first win to get us going and we thoroughly deserved it.
“We have been working hard since pre-season but this week we have been working especially hard.
“We have been in every day working on things we need and it has all come to fruition so it was nice to get a result and hopefully we can kick on now.
“It wasn’t crazy training every day but we were in doing tactical things that will help us win the games which perhaps we haven’t been doing in previous matches and it worked.
“If you look at the games before it just hasn’t been going for us - goals going in at wrong times but today we made sure it was going to be our day and it’s a good feeling.”
Martin scored Gillingham’s second of the afternoon courtesy of a well-placed free kick, and Joe said it’s a part of his game he has been practising for some time.
He added: “I’ve been working on my free kicks for a while now but I just haven’t had the opportunity to have a dig so it was nice to get one in a perfect position.
"I felt confident and luckily it went in.
“Every day in training I spend half an hour on my free kicks so it was nice to eventually get one and see it go in and hopefully it’s the first of many.
“In training when I have been getting them I have been putting them in the top corner so it was an easy decision really [as to who would take it].”
Joe was asked just how big the result was considering the club hadn’t won a competitive game since April.
He said: “Its massive, the feeling in the changing room is completely different. We knew we were good enough to win games in this league, we’ve proved it and we will kick on now.
“We have always believed we can win games but that’s different to being confident. We have done everything absolutely right and it showed.”
Read what Martin Allen had to say about the game here.
Videos with both Joe and Martin will be available on player shortly.