Sam Vokes and Seb Palmer-Houlden make first league starts for Gillingham in home clash against Cheltenham Town

Gillingham handed first league starts to Sam Vokes and Seb Palmer-Houlden on Saturday – and the club’s medical team were thanked for making it happen.

Vokes had played 45 minutes in the midweek game at Colchester - the longest amount of time he’d played for the club since recovering from injury - while Palmer-Houlden was a pre-match doubt on Saturday after an injury scare led to him pulling out of that game on Tuesday.

They both lined up for the Gills against Cheltenham from the off at the weekend, and both were unfortunate that so many chances they got were tricky to finish. Palmer-Houlden made it to 70 minutes and Vokes lasted 80.

Assistant boss Richard Dobson was keen to thank those who had helped get them prepared.

He said: “Jama (fitness coach James Russell) and Minty (physio Paul Timson), the sports science team and the medical team did a wonderful job getting players fit.

“It was looking like we were going to be a lot lighter at the start of the week, and what they did over those last few days [before the weekend] was nothing short of amazing.

“I've got to give them a lot of credit to get the players that [we had] out on the pitch, and fair play to Vokesy, fair play to Seb for running through as long as they did.”

Bradley Dack also returned back from a brief spell out injured and he came off the bench in the second half.

Dobson also spoke about how defender Shad Ogie had been playing on despite not being 100%.

Cheltenham almost scored from some sloppy play in the first half from Ogie but he also almost created a goal at the other end with some classy footwork.

Dobson admits it’s not been a smooth few weeks for the defender since his return from injury.

He said: “It’s probably wasn’t ideal to play Shad [in his]