Gillingham defender Conor Masterson on victory over Harrogate Town, goals, clean sheets and a focus on reaching the League Two play-offs

Conor Masterson underlined his growing influence at Gillingham as the goalscoring defender played a key role in Saturday’s win.

Masterson opened the scoring with a nice finish from inside the box and went on to help the team secure a solid win, backed up with a clean sheet.

The Irish centre-half, who has only recently worked his way back to full fitness, set the tone for a dominant afternoon as the Gills claimed back-to-back League 2 victories in front of 472 travelling fans.

Reflecting on the performance, after a 3-0 win, Masterson felt it was close to the perfect day.

“It was a really good performance overall,” he said.

“First half, we created loads of chances as well. Just didn't find the goal, but I thought the way we kept going, the way we kept pushing and then to score three goals and win that’s like a perfect day.”

Masterson’s opener came early in the second half, continuing a rich vein of form in front of goal for the defender. He’d scored the previous week against Newport.

He said: “It was a great ball from Max Clark, a great header to me from Big Josh [Andrews]. He's seen me and I just did what I seemed to be doing at the minute.

“I enjoy scoring. I feel like I'm a goal-scoring centre-half, so I'd like to keep it going but it's great we didn't settle for one.

“We got the second, obviously a penalty, and a class finish for the third and to keep a clean sheet.”

Masterson believes the result was built on strong character and leadership throughout the side.

He said: “There is a lot of togetherness out there at the minute and there's a lot of leaders out on the pitch, I think you can see that.

“The way we kept going, the way we kept passing the ball, wanting more, and it showed. 3-0 is nice.”

The clean sheet was