After two friendlies played in blistering heat, the Gills collected their first pre-season win on a cool night at Princes Park against newly promoted Blue Square South outfit Dartford.

Andy Hessenthaler switched formations to a more attacking 4-3-3 formation with Mark Bentley taking up a holding role in midfield for the first time in pre-season. Stefan Payne made his first Gills start, up front along side Dennis Oli, while Lance Cronin debuted between the posts.

Gillingham made a positive start to proceedings and took just three minutes to open the first half scoring, Curtis Weston crossing for Danny Spiller to head goalwards. Darts keeper Andrew Young made the save but the grounded Spiller recovered quickly to hook in the finish.

The visitors enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges, Weston pulled a low drive from distance wide of Young's near post before captain Barry Fuller caught a rare glimpse of goal on 15 minutes. The full-back controlled a deep forward pass on the edge of the Darts box, set up Stefan Payne to shoot, then fired the blocked rebound narrowly wide of the far post.

Spiller headed into the keeper's arms five minutes later after Fuller had again made up ground on the right to cross. Gillingham, looking more cohesive than in their prior pre-season outings, worked hard as a team to contain their hosts, who struggled to carve out a decent chance in the first 45.

Trialist Lance Cronin, given little opportunity to display his goalkeeping prowess, showed great composure to deal with a dangerous back-pass on the half-hour, wrong-footing the advancing Charlie Sheringham with a deft touch before passing the ball out from the back.

The Darts only clear-cut opening came on 36 minutes as fellow Gills trialist Tony Sinclair came to his sides rescue, hacking Danny Harris' goalbound shot off the line as the hosts enjoyed a good burst of pressure.

While John Nutter went close at the other end with a 42^nd minute free-kick that was well held by Young, low to his right hand side.

HT 1-0

Both sides made significant changes at half time, Gillingham retaining their three pronged attack but with on trial pair Fola Onibuje and Serge Makofo joining Dennis Oli in attack.

Jack Payne made a timely intervention to prevent Joe Bruce levelling the scores in the 52^nd minute. The Darts defender connected well with a near post corner but Payne was on hand to head off the line at the far post.

Two minutes later, Gillingham doubled their lead in spectacular fashion. Oli controlled a long clearance from Maher and sent Chris Palmer wide on the left, the full-back looked to cross but instead curled a cute finish over the keeper and into the far corner of the net.

On 65 minutes Dartford could have pulled one back as Ryan Hayes' cross from the right wing flashed across the box but former Gills youngster Adam Burchell just could not force it home at the back post.

Former Ajax midfielder Stanley Aborah came on for the visitors with just under 20 minutes to go and within moments had laid on a great chance for Sam Gargan with a lofted ball to the back post that the trialist headed the wrong side of the upright.

Soon after, Aborah decided to go for goal himself, hitting a low free-kick that scudded across the deck before crashing into the hoardings behind the goal. At the opposite end Adam Burchell was unlucky once more for the hosts five minutes from time, wrong-footing the visitors defence with a neat turn before dragging his finish wide of the near post.

Two minutes from time Dartford netted a deserved consolation, Tom Bonner diverting Ryan Hayes free-kick beyond a helpless Lance Cronin. Then on the stroke of full-time Ian Hendon was given his marching orders by referee Steve Bennett for kicking the ball at Hayes after a tackle from behind on Sam Gargan, the incident bringing a sour end to an otherwise decent night for Hessenthaler's Gills,

Attendance: 770

Gillingham: Lance Cronin, Barry Fuller (Jack Payne 46), John Nutter (Chris Palmer 46), Tony Sinclair, Josh Gowling, Mark Bentley (Kevin Maher 46, Connor Essam 80), Curtis Weston (Stanley Aborah 73), Danny Spiller (Luke Rooney 46), Stefan Payne (Fola Onibuje 46, Sam Gargan 72), Dennis Oli (Andrew White 61), Andy Barcham (Serge Makofo 46).