Peter Taylor heaps praise on his players following a last gasp win over Leyton Orient
Peter Taylor said he couldn’t praise his players enough following a thrilling 3-2 win over Leyton Orient at Priestfield on Saturday.Chris Dagnall’s 93rd minute equalizer looked to have snatched a point from 10 man Gillingham following Michael Doughty’s sending off, but super sub Cody McDonald smashed home a winner in the dying seconds to clinch maximum points in a truly gripping second half.
After the game Peter said: “It was fantastic and a lovely feeling to get three points against a team who I know are down there with us but they still have a lot of good players.
“Every different thing could have happened in that game, and did happen, but the most important thing was that I thought we showed fantastic character.
“I’ve got to give the players so much credit because there were lots of things that were good and we bounced back and that’s where it was a really enjoyable final result.
“It was a positive start and we got the penalty, you are hoping it would be 1-0 but it wasn’t. The lads kept going though and I was very pleased with the first half performance.
“In the second half we changed it a little bit after a few minutes and they got on with it. Then we go 4-4-1 because we only had 10 men again so every shape that was put in front of the players they handled.
“We were a little bit disappointed with the penalty; it was a good one to be fair to the player that took it so then all of a sudden we need to fight again, but thankfully for us we did.”
The Manager paid tribute to his squad who had to dig deep after going down to 10 men, and applauded Legge and McDonald for the part they played in the comeback.
He added: “I can’t praise the players enough, we got a lot out of Tuesday night because we won a game there with 10 men and we needed a win. I’m sure we’ve got a lot out of today aswell.
"Full credit to them because it wasn’t easy and we needed to keep bouncing back.
“All three were set pieces I think; even Cody’s was from the corner eventually. Leggy is getting better as a player, he’s doing well and he’s defending better.
“He’s so powerful in the air that if he keeps moving around he’s hard to mark and I thought his two headers were outstanding.
“I’m really pleased for Cody too, he said I left him out this time last year for three games and it did him good so hopefully he comes back in and scores a bit more.”
As for the red card that saw Doughty dismissed, Taylor said:
“It’s a really silly second yellow but the first yellow was one. The second, I know what he tried to do, he did half throw it to the player but just leave the ball alone and let them get on with it.”