Gillingham boss Martin Allen believes his League One side have more quality than Ipswich Town following the Blues’ last-gasp 2-1 friendly win at Priestfield on Tuesday night.

Mick McCarthy’s side zipped the ball around confidently in the first half, took the lead through David McGoldrick’s fine free-kick and were only denied a second thanks to a string of fine saves from keeper Stuart Nelson.

Ex Norwich City striker Cody McDonald levelled things up just 10 seconds after the restart before a number of substitutions from both sides made for a disjointed second period. Ipswich then went close through efforts from Frank Nouble and David McGoldrick before David October’s crisp volley won it at the death.

“I have to be honest, I don’t view Ipswich as having a team of real quality,” Allen told KentOnline. “I don’t mean that in any disrespect to Mick McCarthy or their players or supporters. For me, personally, I believe our players are quality.

“For me we are better than them without a shadow of a doubt.

“The goal at the end did take the shine off it and I don’t think that was a fair reflection of the way the game was.

“I was just disappointed for the lads who were on for those final 20 minutes. They ran themselves into the ground and it was a big night for them to play in such a game for the first team. It was good to see some of our younger players out there.

“I don’t think we deserved to lose the game and we have to learn because we did have a few slips last year, lastminute dot com, and so as coaches, managers and players of course perhaps that’s a good reminder as we don’t want that to happen again.”

He continued: “I thought it was a great game and we played really well.

“We had some good possession in the first half and I think they had one little melee of chances, where Stuart Nelson made some good saves and they showed a bit of quality to score from their free-kick.

“I thought overall in the first half we played very well. We changed a little bit in the second half, played a bit of a different way, which created a lot of pressure and we scored a great goal. We were then looking for the winner and I was delighted with all of them.”