Only one emotion and that’s relief – John Coleman hails Gills win over Morecambe

Gillingham boss John Coleman was full of relief after his side eased their relegation fears with a 1-0 win against fellow strugglers Morecambe.

Robbie McKenzie scored the only goal of the game late on to earn Coleman his first victory since taking charge — and ended the club’s worrying 13-game winless run.

And Coleman, whose team are 12 points clear of the bottom two after their first win since mid-December, said: “There’s only one emotion for me and that’s relief.

“It’s difficult to separate relief from happiness. If you said that you wouldn’t go to the toilet every time you need to go to the toilet because you’d wait until you absolutely needed to and then you’d have happiness and that’s not very good is it?

“I’m delighted for the fans. They stuck with us. There were no moans and groans when we had to be patient.

“I’m pleased for the fans, I’m pleased for the players and the staff because it’s been a long time coming. We haven’t got a group here who sit on our hands and do nothing.

“The relief that we showed at the end was palpable.

“We had to find a way because we didn’t want to play the game Morecambe’s way, they wanted to make it physical.

“The chance we’ve had to score, we’ve had that chance probably 15 times in the last four games. Sometimes they go in and sometimes they don’t. For us, it felt like it was never going to go in.”

Morecambe are three points off safety and Derek Adams admitted every game is now a cup final for them to help secure their Football League status.

He said: “It’s very difficult to take.

“We understand we’re away from home, we understood they hadn’t won under the new management.

“We limited them to very little, but we didn’t do enough to get good opportunities to win the game.

“We played with three strikers, we’ve played with wide players at times, but any combination isn’t allowing us to get goals at the moment.

“We’ve got to look at it that every game’s a cup final. We’ve got 12 games and we’ve still got a lot to play for.

“We didn’t do well enough to stop their goal or in the final third.

“I’ve said to the players they’re the only ones who can change it. They’re the only ones who can influence the game on the pitch.

“They work ever so hard. They keep on going. They don’t get the breaks they deserve at times.

“But we have lacked that quality and that little bit of edge in the final third.”