"Don't write us off!"

Gareth Ainsworth heaped praise on his players as his team showed terrific spirit to come back from two goals down at Bromley to draw 2-2 and remain unbeaten this season.

Max Clark scored a 99th minute penalty following a foul in the box on Garath McCleary, with Josh Andrews having scored his first goal of the campaign earlier in the second half.

Gills were two down within the opening 15 minutes but showed a collective fight and togetherness which delighted the boss.

He said: “The first 20 minutes we were a little but unrecognizable. We got sucked into a battle with Bromley and if you battle with Bromley you are going to be in trouble; they are good battlers, they are real physical specimens.

“They know how they play, they know what they want to do and they really put it on us – crosses into the box and crazy decisions from us, we didn’t win enough headers, we weren’t as solid as I have seen us, but that is 20 minutes gone.

“For the rest of the game I thought we got the ball down well, I thought we played some real good stuff at times.

“At the end we had players on the pitch like Aaron Rowe, Garath McCleary, Jonny Smith and Jonny Williams – these are players who need to play and not big battlers. I would have put all my centre-halves up front if I wanted that.

“At half-time I thought it was really important to tell the boys messages that we could take another touch, we can get it down and have a bit of guile about us and it was brilliant to see them coming back into the game.

“Josh Andrews in the first half was unlucky; it was a great save from the keeper. They had one headed off the line, we could have lost, but the courage to get back in the game they were unbelievable to show that, absolutely superb. The spirit and togetherness…the fans were absolutely superb and never stopped singing. At 2-0 down they are getting behind us, I thought that was brilliant, they are knowledgeable fans and they could see we were up against it but once we settled a bit we were the better team.

“Garath McCleary said it was way more minutes than you promised me, I am not ready for that yet! But I am glad I did because he got the penalty. The referee has to make the decision.

“Jonny Smith had a couple of good chance, as did Sam Vokes. To get back in it was super special and I am sure the fans are going home happy."

Gareth mentioned that the comeback against a difficult side away from home shows a lot of what his team are about.

He added: "It speaks volumes about what we have got, and the boys I have referred to have played in the Premier League and the Championship, they have all come in saying we love this spirit. They are all in it together, and that’s what I’ve got here and it’s really special; they brought in straight away. We are a really top team and I am looking forward to seeing what we can do next week. That was a battle.

“We needed to get the ball down and play a bit more and not be scared of the battle we ended up in, fair play to Bromley who sucked us into a bit of a war today and they will win that nine out of ten times because that is what they are a good at. We had to find a way of bringing the Football back in, switch the play down the wings and at the end we looked like a quick side, that was really important, I love my pacey players. We looked like we could break at any time.

“Two nil down at half-time at Bromley you write a lot of clubs off, but not Gillingham. Don’t write us off."

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