Taylor relieved after late drama

Peter Taylor breathed a big sigh of relief after his Gillingham side's 3-2 victory over Leyton Orient.

In the first half Danny Kedwell missed a penalty for the hosts but after the interval the game burst to life, experienced Italian striker Gianvito Plasmati opening the scoring from the spot, his first goal for the Os. But Leon Legge thumped home twice from corners to turn the game on its head and seemingly send Gills to their first league win in nine games. Michael Doughty then saw red for the hosts and after a period of prolonged pressure Orient had a deserved equaliser in stoppage time when Scott Dagnall headed home. But there was still time for McDonald to rescue victory for Gills and leave Taylor grinning from ear to ear. "It's a lovely finish. It's a lovely feeling to get three points again," he said. "I know Orient are down there, but they've still got lots of good players. It's a nice feeling, I think every different thing that could have happened did happen today. "We showed fantastic character. We had to win this match. It was an important win. I'm delighted for the supporters, the results and form have not been good enough. "We needed a league win, and it's a good feeling that we got it. The players showed how much they wanted to win for the club. "All three goals came from set pieces, I'm pleased with that. Legge is doing really well, he's defensively better now and he's so powerful in air. When he moves around in the box, he's hard to mark. His two headers were outstanding. I'm pleased for Cody, too. He said before the game that I left him out for three matches last year and that it did him good. I'm so pleased he came off the bench and got the goal." Victory for Gills sees them climb to 19th and out of the relegation zone while the Os are now in the drop zone as Mauro Milanese still seeks his first win in charge. "I think we never gave up, we tried our best and we were drawing in 90 minutes," he said. "But three set pieces have cost us. The referee was a bit generous, he created a corner for their last goal, but we need to defend crosses better. "It's a shame we lost the game from situations like this. "Plasmati was very cool on the penalty. But we needed more energy to press them better and make sure they didn't play. I think we did everything we could, apart from the free kicks and corners. "It was shocking that they scored from the free-kicks. We need to try in training to defend better. We know in injury time, teams go forward with more people just to get the last attempt, but our players have to jump, get tight, watch their player and not the ball."