ANY WIN IS A GREAT WIN

In doing so, the Iron completed a league double over Rovers for the first time in 25 years – and managing to shut them out over both fixtures for the first time since 1978-79.

“Any win is a great win,” he told The Iron PlayerHD.

“A derby win is important and we’ve got a lot of players who live in Doncaster and they will have the bragging rights. On the day, we were the better side and we were thankful that we got the second goal, because at 1-0 it can still go either way.

“We defend as a team from the front and it starts from the immense work rate of Paddy Madden, Tom Hopper or Kyle Wootton and Greg Luer and that’s the bedrock for what we do.

“As much as it is pleasing to win the game, to keep another clean sheet is as equally as important.”

After a number of chances and brilliant goalkeeping from Gillingham at the weekend, the Iron converted from their first meaningful attack of the game after seven minutes, with Tom Hopper converting from a left-winged cross from Conor Townsend.

“For strikers, if the ball is coming in, you’ve got to get to the near post,” he continued.

“If it goes over their head, it’s just one of those things, but Hops (Tom Hopper) has scored a few goals like that. He’s been speaking with the press that he wants to chip in with more and he did tonight. That will give him immense confidence as well.

“Both full-backs have been excellent – as they have been – and that includes Scott Wiseman and Scott Laird. Conor has been good since he came in and has really matured in his time at Grimsby. We’ve benefitted from that.

“Jordan can be a tremendous player at this level, and above and beyond this level – as can a number of our players.”

The Iron’s second goal came via a corner, with the side yielding more success from the delivery of set-pieces, this time from Jim O'Brien – David Mirfin heading home his second goal of the season.

It was also a third successive clean sheet for the Iron, who have not conceded a goal in over 280 minutes of football.

“We work hard at them (set-pieces),” he stated.

“The execution of all of our set pieces in the last two or three games has been excellent. One of the things when we lost at Fleetwood was the quality of them, but today we got our rewards from the quality of the delivery and timing of runs.

“I know when we score two goals, we don’t often get beat and that’s the same for any team. We’ve had to defend resolutely at times, but we’ve got one of the best defensive records in the league and long may that continue.”