Manager Steve Evans labelled Gillingham’s 2-1 win over Morecambe as their best performance so far this season.
The Gills opened the scoring after four minutes through summer signing Mustapha Carayol, who found the top corner from 25 yards after being teed up by a short Ben Reeves free-kick.
Morecambe striker Cole Stockton levelled proceedings after 25 minutes with a stunning solo effort but Vadaine Oliver’s penalty 11 minutes from time gave Gillingham their first League One victory of the season.
Evans said: “I think we deserved to win the game, for sure. I think we commanded lots of the game – it was possibly our best performance of the season.
“A lot of people were running on empty in the last 10 minutes but they got in the trenches and fought for us.
“We got off to a fantastic start thanks to a great strike by the best player on the park by some distance.
“I’ve signed Mussy [Carayol] three times during his career and he’s capable of a lot more.
“I think he can be sensational for us if we manage him properly.
“Together with Kyle Dempsey, he was rocketing in shots from everywhere during training yesterday and he carried it forward to today.
“We gave a sloppy goal away – it’s a silly goal, there are a number of errors and the goalkeeper should save it.
After Stockton’s equaliser, Morecambe had opportunities to take the lead on multiple occasions, going close through Sam Lavelle and substitute Wes McDonald after the break.
But despite a frustrating afternoon, manager Stephen Robinson felt his side deserved more.
He said: “I thought we totally controlled the game.
“Of course they scored early on but our players are saying Vadaine Oliver was backing into our man [for the foul]. Vadaine is very clever with what he does and we can’t control the referee’s decision.
“The wall wasn’t brave enough from what I can see but we recovered well from it. I thought we passed the ball very well and created opportunities.
“We had a lot of possession but our end product wasn’t good enough That’s what we need to work on.
“It’s hard to be too critical of the players. They’re playing well and we’ve been beaten by two set-plays, both arguable decisions.
“We’re up a level now; we didn’t get too carried away when we won our first two games of the season so we’re not going to get too down now we’ve lost two.”