by Luke Cawdell

Gillingham manager Martin Allen emerged from a sea of celebrations to describe what an amazing feeling winning promotion was for him and the Gillingham team.

The Gills sealed their place in League 1 with three games to spare following the 1-0 win over Torquay at Priestfield on Saturday.

It is the first time in the club’s existence that promotion has been achieved on home soil and only the sixth instance in their Football League history.

“It is an amazing feeling,” said Allen, pictured with skipper Adam Barrett, who was celebrating his first promotion as a manager.

“There was an announcement that came over the whole ground with just a few moments to go (saying a win would secure promotion) and that was a spooky, eerie couple of minutes. The crowd and all of us went pretty quiet and we couldn’t wait for that game to end.”

Gillingham supporter Danny Kedwell scored the crucial goal – his 15th of the season.

And Allen said: “He scored the first goal of our season, against Bradford, which was quite a brilliant goal, where he chipped the goalkeeper from the edge of the 18-yard box and we have rotated the strikers, with Burton, Ben Strevens and Adam Birchall, as well as Myles Weston, who was injured.

“It is fantastic for Danny but it is fantastic for the whole squad. They are very close and so are the staff. We have a good group which Mr Scally has helped us to put together.”

The 1-0 win was typical of the Gills season where they were able to defend a lead.

Allen said: “We’ve got proper men and we also have some young lads playing in our team who are full of energy and enthusiasm and we made changes again from last week, when we played Rotherham.

“I am not sure anybody would have been able to guess the team that we played, but I slept well and have total faith in everyone we have in our squad. They just keep going and keep doing the job that we need for our team.

“In the first half an hour of that game I thought we were absolutely magnificent and we should have really been three or 4-0 ahead.

“Going into half-time it did get a little bit edgy, quiet and nervy, after such a fantastic first 30 minutes, and then the goal from Kedwell, soon after half-time, was just top, top quality and he deserves it because he has worked really hard on his game.”