Robbie McKenzie missed Gillingham’s game against Port Vale after his partner gave birth while Lamin Sillah was ruled out with a possible broken hand

Gillingham were forced to make two changes to their team hours before Tuesday’s game against Port Vale.

Manager Gareth Ainsworth revealed a couple of issues he had to face in the lead up to their League Two clash at Priestfield.

With his team and tactics sorted, things started to get complicated on Tuesday afternoon.

Firstly, Nottingham Forest loan striker Lamin Sillah was ruled out through injury and then came the news that midfielder Robbie McKenzie had his hands full elsewhere.

“Robbie was meant to start,” said the manager. “He rang me at three o'clock and said ‘Gaffer, my missus has gone into labour’.

“I think it was planned for [the next day] or Thursday, which would have been ideal but you can't stop these things coming.

“It's their first baby. If it's his second one, I'm saying get to the game! I'm only joking, fair play to them. They've had a baby girl and congratulations. That's great.

“That was a call at three o'clock I took. At one o'clock I had taken a call on Lamin Sillah to say that he's not going to be able to start, because of a hand injury from Accrington, that we obviously have to be very careful with because there's potential for broken bones in there.

“It's tough this game when you've got these decisions to make but I thought first half, we were very good. Second half, we let them come at us a bit.”

The Gills went 1-0 up through Ronan Hale’s first-half penalty before Port Vale came back fighting after the break and levelled.

Ainsworth said: “If you reverse that around, I think the fans go home a bit happier but because we've let them back into it and we didn't end up winning the game, there's a bit of frustration. But that's football.

“I’m really pleased. I'm hoping the boos were aimed at the referee