Gareth Ainsworth urges Gillingham to build on Newport comeback win

Gillingham boss Gareth Ainsworth urged his side to use their dramatic 3-2 League Two stoppage-time win over Newport as a catalyst to propel themselves into play-off contention.

The Gills, who were winless in nine heading into the game, were 2-1 behind heading into stoppage-time.

But Armani Little levelled from the penalty spot in the first minute of added time before Garath McCleary won it with a header, eight minutes later.

And ecstatic Ainsworth reflected: “What a win, but what a game that was. The fans got their money’s worth certainly.

“I’m so glad we got on the right end of a result like that at home.

“We’ve waited for a while. The players turned up and we found a way to win in a crazy game.

“I’m so proud of the boys and everyone who was involved in this. It was a crazy game emotionally but we kept our cool at the end.

“Some of the big players turned up and made the difference. I’m not going to pick anyone out, I’ll leave that for you guys to do.

“It was a fantastic performance, we created some really good chances but defensively we need to tighten up a bit because we didn’t defend set-pieces well enough today.

“The three points is brilliant and hopefully it’s the start of a run for us.

“The group is a really good group. I told them to forget 16th in the league and no wins in nine because we’ve been close, it’s not like we’ve been turned over every week.

“We are not far away. There are bigger problems elsewhere at clubs. We just need to turn things our way and that’s why I’m excited.”

Michael Spellman headed the relegation-battling Exiles in front early on before Conor Masterson equalised on the half-hour mark.

Cameron Antwi came off the bench and seemingly won it in the 84th minute, but the gutsy Gills rose like a phoenix from the fire through Little and McLeary’s late efforts.

Newport boss Christian Fuchs said: “It’s a reoccurring thing for us where we’re performing well and at the end of the day we end up with no points.

“You could tell by the reaction of the fans, the reaction of their coaching staff how much it means to win against us.

“We made it hard work for them so it’s really unfortunate for us.

“We started the game really well but we didn’t put the game to bed with the chances that we had.

“We need to become desperate to play in a way that we can play. We definitely need to address that. The dips of performance within the 90 or 98 minutes isn’t good enough.

“We need to be better. We need to maintain our standards. If it takes us to be desperate then we need to be desperate. That’s when you see the best of people.

“I’m 100 per cent convinced – and I’ve always said it that – we have amazing quality in our squad.

“We can play well, but what you cannot forget about is the basics, hard work, the reaction when you lose the ball.

“I know it feels great to play, combine, create chances but you can’t rely on that. Football is a fighting sport and if you don’t fight then you don’t get results.

“Again we’re standing here having played well, getting compliments but it hasn’t got us any points.”