"I'm proud of the players, I'm proud of the supporters and I am pleased for them."
Gillingham manager Mark Bonner was elated for everybody associated with the Football Club after Gillingham beat Port Vale 1-0 at the MEMS Priestfield Stadium on Saturday.
Bonner was impressed with the effort of his squad throughout the game, who did brilliantly to stifle the visitors who top the League Two table.
All of the substitutes impacted the game when they were introduced, with Jayden Clarke scoring the winning goal and heading beyond Connor Ripley in the Port Vale goal.
Gills will travel to Stevenage on Tuesday, knowing that victory by a two-goal margin will guarantee qualification to the next round of the Bristol Street Motors Trophy. The Gills boss is hoping that his side can advance to the next round despite losing their first two group games against a strong outfit.
Thoughts on the game...
They had a really good chance in the second-half, but other than that, we gave them absolutely nothing. I thought without the ball we were brilliant, and our pressing and intensity in the first half-hour was class. In the end we had some really good spells of control, without creating loads in a few of those moments.
The substitutes were excellent impacting the game. Even in the end it didn't feel like we were hanging on. We were holding the game.
They had one or two little entries in the first-half. One where they appealed for a penalty that the ref swayed away. The second one is a good chance. We haven't had to make a save, but they will be kicking themselves for not making better use of it.
Our build-up play was very good. Our threatening moments to get to the top end was very good, then we just lacked a little bit of a spark or physicality in a few moments to really hurt them, which we had as the game went on in the second-half with the changes. You saw a bit of a difference that you get when Josh [Andrews] is there as a target. It made a big difference for us. That was helpful.
We ran ourselves into the ground and I love it for them.
Emotions of the victory...
We're buzzing. Let's be honest. We are relieved because we needed to win, and today was always going to be a tough one to win. The fact that we have beaten a team by one goal to nil, who are unbeaten in ten or whatever it is, two back-to-back manager of the months. They are absolutely flying.
We are absolutely delighted.
Everyone deserves that winning feeling again. It's been too long, but it puts us in a really nice position after a horrible run.
Impact of the substitutes...
[Armani Little injury] - I thought Armani was brilliant at the time. I don't know how bad it is, but he has done his hamstring. It is a real loss for us. You saw the legs and energy that he played with.
[Ethan Coleman] - He did very well when he came on and gave us some nice security in the game. Every one that did come on had an impact.
We put Jayden [Clarke] in a position that he hasn't really played for us, but we wanted pace there because we thought that we could threaten them. We knew that we were going to get a target up there and playing Jack [Nolan] in behind. We flipped about a bit with the formations to make sure that without the ball, we were brilliant, which we were.
Looking ahead...
We will get back to work on Monday. We will get a team ready for Tuesday against Stevenage. To have a little break in the league will be good for us.
[Vs Stevenage Tuesday] - We will pick a team to try and win the game. Lots of the boys that didn't play will play. The squad is the squad, so everyone will be coming, and we will try to win the game, knowing that we don't have a game next week.
The truth is that when we walked off the pitch here the last time, we thought that it was going to be a dead rubber of a game, but it isn't. That's great for us to have something on it.
