Taylor: JPT a priority

Peter Taylor insists the JPT is a priority at Gillingham after they beat Leyton Orient to book a place in the Southern section final.

While the Gills have struggled in the league with just one win in their last 11, it couldn't be more different in the Trophy and a late John Egan header kept their run going. The 22-year-old rose unchallenged to head home a Michael Doughty corner in the 79th minute for the winner with the Gills the first team to have advanced out of the area semi-finals. Gillingham have now beaten Stevenage, Colchester, Crawley and Leyton Orient in a fine run but boss Taylor doesn't want it to stop there. "The Johnstone's Paint Trophy has been important because we need to get a win out of anywhere, even if it was on the training pitch," he said. "It has enabled us to get some confidence back and we've been unbeaten for five matches and once you get this far you'll want to go all the way and that's what the boys have on their minds. "I didn't think it was a great game. At times we were decent, at times we were poor. The effort has never been in question and we work extremely hard as a team to defend at the right times and to attack at the right times. The quality wasn't there enough, especially in the first half. "You know you're going to get a tough game next, it will be either Coventry or Bristol City, you'd love to get an away game on the first leg and finish off a good night at our place. We are capable of winning any game in League One if we get it right on the day." Meanwhile Leyton Orient boss Mauro Milanese couldn't quite believe his eyes at the winner coming from a set piece having forced his players into double training to combat such a threat. "This week we worked on a lot of set pieces because we thought that Gillingham would be dangerous, particularly with those types of chances and we had double training and everything," he said. "But another corner killed us and that is happening too often. We were on the end of three set-pieces in the league and another corner killed us in the cup and I think that's too many. "I asked the lads to have responsibility, be tighter, we tried to double the markers, but in the end we lost another game with the same thing. Every game we have different problems. It's frustrating for me, the supporters, the players and the staff. "I think the good point is that we are not losing because we are playing worse than them or we didn't create chances or because we were weaker than them or we gave up, we just lost because we didn't finish well."