Gillingham manager Mark Stimson was understandably pleased to see his side win 1-0 at Wembley in the League Two play-off final against Shrewsbury.

Stimson was in charge when the Gills were relegated last season and said, "It's taken a lot of hard work and that's the game we are in, if you don't put the hard work in you don’t get the rewards and today I thought we got the rewards we deserved.

"Full credit to the boys, they've done what they've done for a long while now. We made some big decisions that the club had to make and I was quite comfortable if it went into extra time and penalties that we would come out winners."

Stimson also praised goalscorer Simeon Jackson who netted a dramatic winner in second-half stoppage-time.

“He’s a big game player. He knows where the goal is. He didn’t have the best of games – credit to their centre halves who marked him tight – but when the opportunity he came up he was in the right place at the right time. It’s not luck, it’s by being a natural goal scorer.

"He deserves a lot, he doesn't get as much praise as I think he should as top goal scorer, I think the supporters should have a banner every game because they usually get the limelight. He's a serious pro at a young age. He wants to improve and get better, he'll keep a level head and hopefully take the club forward."

Stimson was also looking to a finacial boost from their elevation.

"It's massive financially. There are several local teams we can attract and with Leeds, Norwich and Southampton coming down we will have some big gates.

"We brought over 30,000 fans to Wembley today and we need to attract as many of them as we can every week.

"We had already arranged meetings with some players for next week regardless of what league we were going to be in.

"We need to improve the squad and we have to try and become a good League One side."




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