Gills striker praises squad determination as visitors clinch a point from tough game at Bradford
Cody McDonald said the team showed great character to respond positively after half time to take a 1-1 draw from Bradford at Valley Parade.
The striker notched up his 14th goal of the season when Bayo Akinfenwa, who came on at the break, delivered a neat pass through for his forward partner who converted beyond Jon McLaughlin in the Bantams goal.
Both sides had opportunities to claim a second, but in the end the points were shared as Gills increased their unbeaten run to three games.
Speaking after the game McDonald said: “I think it’s a good point, we weren’t happy with the way we played in the first half.
"We didn’t get near them but it shows great character to come back in the second half, get an early goal and their fans turned on them.
“We capitalised on that, we had a couple of other chances but overall 1-1 is probably a fair result.
“Bayo was off my shoulder and I heard him call, carried on my run and he did everything for me and I just had to stick it away – I was happy with that one.
“People think he’s up there to battle but the ball sticks to him. You can see that, if you give him good service he keeps hold of it and brings others in to play and for that reason I love playing with him.
“He helps me; we have played with each other for a long time now. He knows my runs and I know where he is going to put it so it works well.
“As I went through I thought I would dink him but he stayed big and I saw his legs were apart so I thought if I put it low it would go in and that’s what happened.
“The lads have dug in, we may not have played well all the time but as long as you compete we have a chance and I think that’s what we have done.
“Their fans got behind their team and it was hard in the first half, we didn’t get hold of the ball and the Manager made a couple of changes.
“We won the second half 1-0 and got a valuable point.
“After the three disappointing losses we had on the bounce, if you had said we would have seven points from the next three we would have bitten your hand off because they were tough games.”