Gillingham's Carabao Cup win over Brentford was a welcome boost for the club and especially the supporters says captain Stuart O'Keefe

Gillingham captain Stuart O’Keefe was pleased to be able to give their fans some much-needed cheer on Tuesday night.

It’s been hard going for Gillingham supporter in recent seasons, relegated last term with a woeful home record, and now sitting third from bottom in League 2. The Gills caused a shock by beating Premier League Brentford just days after failing to see off non-league AFC Fylde in the FA Cup.

Those 2,163 Gillingham fans at Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium were in dreamland as their struggling side surprisingly took the tie to penalties and then won it with a faultless penalty shootout display.

“It was nice to give the fans something to cheer about,” said the skipper.

“The fans were outstanding all game. When you see us go 1-0 down early on, they could easily turn, but they didn’t, they stuck by us, they were noisy and they spurred us on in tough times when we had to dig in.

“They have not had much to cheer about in recent times, we understand that, we know it, we need to use it and move on and take this into Saturday (against Northampton in League 2) and then on Tuesday (against AFC Fylde in the FA Cup first round replay).

“It was an excellent night, we enjoyed it, but we have to recover and do it right for Northampton on Saturday.”

The pressure was off the Gills when they took the penalties, and they scored all six of their kicks.

O’Keefe said: “The gaffer said the pressure was on them, we had done exceptionally well just to get to penalties, we were just going to take cool and calm penalties, if we won we won and if not so be it, but the standard of penalties was excellent.

“We have to enjoy these occasions, they are few and far between for lower league clubs to come to Premier League grounds and play on