Andy Smith was delighted to score his first goal for the Football Club as Gillingham beat Accrington Stanley 2-0 at the MEMS Priestfield Stadium on Easter Monday.
The defender got on the end of Armani Little's corner to head past Ollie Wright in the Accrington goal during the first-half, and credited the Gills skipper for his cross that led to his goal. Smith also gave an explanation behind the celebration of his goal, with Sam Vokes providing the inspiration.
Smith was pleased to have put in a strong performance from the beginning, but knows that there is still plenty of work to do. He was also glad to have kept a clean sheet and restricted their opponents to very little in what was a solid team effort defensively.
Gills won for the first time in ME7 since the victory against Tranmere, and the 24-year-old credited manager Gareth Ainsworth for never letting their head's drop despite the difficult spell they have been on.
On his first goal for the Football Club...
I am buzzing. It felt like it had been a long time coming. I am really happy to have finally done it.
I think that it was Litts [Armani Little] that put the ball in for my goal, and he put it just where we had worked on, and it made my job a bit easier.
[On the celebration] - It's funny. Vokesy [Sam Vokes] came up to me before the game and said that he fancied me to score today, and when I did actually score, the only person that I could actually think of was Vokesy, so I did a little celebration in honour of Vokesy. I think that the lads might understand it better than the fans looking on, so I look a bit of an idiot there! But I am just happy to have gotten the goal!
On the win and the performance...
I think that from the start, we were really good. Obviously, things weren't perfect, and there are things that we can definitely work on, but as a team, I felt that we worked well together today. I am really happy.
For me, nothing beats a clean sheet. That's what I am here for. That is what the rest of the defenders are here for, and it is what we strive for week in and week out. We work hard in training to better ourselves, and do clips outside of training, so when a clean sheet comes around, it is really nice.
[On restricting Accrington to no shots on target] - That is something that we strive for every single week. It is just about doing it a bit more consistently now. I think that is the level for us; hopefully, we can build on this.
The quality of the set piece deliveries...
The delivery today was really good. When the delivery is on point, it gives us an even better chance to go and make something happen, so full credit to Litts and Clarky [Max Clark] today. I was buzzing with that.
On getting back to winning ways at home...
Like I say, we have been in a tough run of form, there is no hiding away from that, but the Gaffer never let us feel sorry for ourselves. I said that after Crawley. I said that the Gaffer would never let us feel sorry for ourselves, and I think that is why he is so good for us. There could have been times when the Gaffer got really down on things because things weren't going well, like some of the players were, but he always picked us back up.
I think that performances like today is full credit to that.
