Gillingham continued their unbeaten start to the 2010/11 campaign with a 0-0 draw at Hereford on Saturday and Hessy was very encouraged by his team's impressive away display, "I was absolutely delighted with us, I thought we were absolutely phenomenal today.
"I felt that over the 90 minutes we deserved to win the game. We played the ball really well in the first half and the pleasing thing for me is that we worked on things at the training ground this week, on set pieces, and on another day we could easily have gone in at half-time 2-0 up.
"We hit the post and worked a couple of good situations, one from a wide free-kick, one from another corner, and I don't feel I can ask for any more from the players. You saw the reaction from the fans at the end, how pleased they were with the performance, I'm delighted with that."
With two draws in their opening two outings, the Gills look hard to beat and Hessy believes that consistency is the key to a successful campaign, "We've got players to come back but I said to them in the dressing room, if you keep showing desire and passion, all the stuff that we demand, then we're going to have a good season without a doubt.
"At the start of last week, before the Cheltenham game, I told them that we need to go on runs. If we can go 10 games unbeaten then we'll be one of the teams' that is going to be up there. You've got to have spells like that and now we're two games unbeaten so who knows?
"We don't want too many draws over the season but we're only four points off the top. That's the way to look at it. I'll go home pleased, a little frustrated, but excited because we've got players to come back in and there is a real belief in the dressing room."
New boy Matt Lawrence made his debut at right-back after signing from Crystal Palace, late last week, and Hessy was impressed with the veteran's impact, "I thought he had a very good performance, he hasn't played one pre-season game and he's been training on his own at home.
"At 36, you can see how fit the boy is and he's very experienced. Their boys up top are a handful and I thought we dealt with them very well in the end."
Lawrence was drafted in to cover the team's lengthy injury problems but the Gills Gaffer is confident that he will have one or two players back to fitness for next week's visit of Lincoln City, "We'll know a little more this week but we have eleven players out at the moment.
"We're hoping Cody McDonald will be back on the training ground this week, I'd say Barry Fuller is 50/50, Dennis Oli 50/50, you'll definitely be seeing Curtis available for next weekend, and maybe the boy from Ajax.
"Unfortunately, Dan (Jackman) might have to have an operation which is a bit of a blow. He had a bit of a problem with his knee in pre-season which seems to have got worse and the scan shows he may have a little bit of floating cartilage behind the knee, which will probably mean keyhole surgery."
With 28 senior pros on the Club's books Hessenthaler knows he will need to trim his staff before too much longer but is not expecting players to depart before the close of the transfer window in two week's time. "I wouldn't have thought anything will happen at the moment.
"If anything happens I would have thought it will be when the window opens for loans. It may be a case of moving some of the young boys out so they can get some games because everybody needs to play."
