Nelson show hailed by Taylor

Peter Taylor saluted Stuart Nelson after his heroics sae Gillingham beat Colchester 4-2 on spot-kicks following a 3-3 draw in the JPT.

Nelson denied both George Moncur and Tom Eastman in the shoot-out and then scored himself, to help the Gills prevail. Gillingham boss Taylor said: "Stuart was absolutely outstanding. "He was beaten by a fantastic goal in the first half which he couldn't do anything about but he's done very well. "He's worked exceptionally hard to get himself fit for this game and he's hasn't stopped talking and using all of his experience. "And then when it came to penalties, he said straight away he wanted to take one. He's a very confident, experienced goalkeeper and I'm delighted for him that he's made the saves and he's scored one. "We didn't have a lorry load wanting to take penalties so I was pleased Nelson wanted to take one. "He made a good save too in the shoot-out - he guessed right and he had firm wrists so he kept them out. "We're pleased to be through - in the first half we were nowhere near it but in the second half, it was a bit more like it." Colchester took a 17th-minute lead through Drey Wright's magnificent 25-yard strike but Ben Dickenson levelled for Gillingham seven minutes later when he collected Joe Martin's pass and finished coolly. Sanchez Watt restored Colchester's lead seven minutes before half time from the spot after Callum Davies had fouled Rhys Healey in the area. However, Bradley Dack stabbed in Jermaine McGlashan's assist to equalise 10 minutes after half time and Gillingham went ahead with 16 minutes remaining when Antonio German slotted in Amine Linganzi's pass. Substitute Freddie Sears converted Elliott Hewitt's cross to equalise for Colchester late on, before Gillingham prevailed on penalties. Colchester boss Tony Humes said: "We could have done with a cup win and a home win, because we haven't won here this season. "But I'm quite happy with the overall performance. "The movement was fantastic but we have to be better when we're not in possession. "We had four clean sheets in five games but in our last two games, we've conceded too many goals. "We have to keep believing that the way we're playing is the right way to play, because there's some fantastic stuff out there and we'll take the positives out of it. "We've created a lot of opportunities but when we do that, we have to take them to put ourselves out of sight when the game is 1-0 or 2-1, to get a two-goal cushion. "We have to make sure that everyone is at it in every game, because that's the only way that we're going to get through the games."