EDINBURGH: CUTTING EDGE WON IT

Gills manager praises battling performance

Gillingham manager Justin Edinburgh believes his side's cutting edge was key in today's 2-1 victory over in-form Barnsley.


Goals from Dominic Samuel and Bradley Dack earned the Gills their 12th victory of the season at the MEMS Priestfield Stadium and moved them back to second in Sky Bet League One.


“We've come up against form team in country, we had to battle hard and I thought we got there in the end,” said Edinburgh. “In the final third we had the cutting edge.


“Barnsley have had a fantastic run of late, we knew we'd be up against it. The first goal was what we spoke about with the players in the week, hitting them on the counter at pace. We did that very well.


“It was a simple [equalising] goal from Barnsley, one we're disappointed with, but what good teams do is have a response and we got ourselves ahead again.


“The whole team are a professional group, they had to go right to the wire today.”


Burton Albion sit five points ahead of the Gills atop the table, but today's win opened up an 11-point gap over Southend United in seventh place.


Nonetheless, despite the strong position his side find themselves in, Edinburgh is still focusing on the task in hand.


“There are 15 games to go now, and we're in with a chance,” he added. “We've got to maintain that.


“There's nothing we can do about other teams' performances, we can't affect their results.


“We have to look after ourselves. If we take our eye off it now, we'll regret it. Other results have gone for us today, they didn't last week, and that will chop and change for the rest of the season.”