Rosler's Fleetwood fighters hell-bent on victory

David Ball diverted the ball home from close range to open the scoring on 19 minutes, but Jake Hessenthaler equalised for the Gills early in the second half only for substitute Ash Hunter to seal the three points with a sublime volley eight minutes from time.

Head coach Rosler was pleased to see his players show the mental strength to graft for the result.

He said: “I’m delighted. We started very well and got the early goal once again.

“We had some great opportunities where we missed the last ball and then we got sucked into their game.

“We found it difficult to deal with their wide men because we could not get around them.

“They established play in our half and created a number of crosses, corners and free-kicks, and we are not the tallest team.

“We dealt well with it when we were put on the back foot by a team with some great players.

“We grafted over the majority of the game for the win and that is a great sign when you are not at your best.

“The mentality of the players shone through and we did not want to be beaten.

“We had a clear target that they (Gillingham) were not going to make up any points on us, like Millwall did last week.

“We wanted to increase the lead on them and that is what we did.”

Town are now five points clear of the 18th-placed Gills and two points outside the top-six.

Substitute Hunter was the Town hero but Rosler had no wish to single anyone out.

He added: “A big compliment to the lads because they really stuck in. I take my hat of to them because they fought like hell and there were a lot of good performances.

“Mentally we were strong to deal with the long balls and the balls into the box.

“Our substitutions helped us with energising us and winning the game but at Fleetwood Town nobody is more important than the team.”

Rosler’s only criticism was that Town invited pressure rather than building on the early goal.

He said: “I think sometimes we get the goal too early and sometimes that is counter-productive because then we think we have something to defend. We have to get that out of the heads.

“When we get the early goal we have to go for the second and we have to continue what is working for us.”