Gillingham chairman Brad Galinson hopes the club avoid further punishment from the Football Association following spectator abuse in League 2 game against Newport

Gillingham’s chairman hopes the Football Association will react favourably to their swift and firm action after a fan was arrested for racist abuse.

A home supporter was seen appearing to imitate a monkey infront of Newport County striker Omar Bogle at Priestfield as the player celebrated the first of his two goals.

The Gills are desperate to stamp out the abuse and chairman Brad Galinson feels they are doing what they can.

“We could get fined but the FA is pretty reasonable,” said the US owner, following a weekend of shame.

“What they judge you for is not so much what happened, it is: ‘Did you follow the guidelines to prevent it from happening? Did you follow the guidelines to react when it happened? Did you follow the guidelines to prevent it going forward?’ More than just the fact that it happened in the first place.

“We were fined last season, there were three episodes where we probably weren’t as great as we should have been, we learned a lot from that and have improved considerably and you could see on Saturday we think we followed everything, before the match, when it happened and after the match.

“The hope is that the FA say: ‘We get it, you guys did everything you could’ and they will be more lenient and then we will just get better and better at it.”

The Gills are being monitored by the FA - the game’s governing body - following those three previous incidents last season which they were fined for. The weekend abuse follows an object thrown from the stand hitting the opposition goalkeeper the week before, something that is still being investigated.

Three other fans were ejected on Saturday for discriminatory language, with claims that the visiting female physio was also the target of abuse from some spectators