by Luke Cawdell

Gillingham emerged from a feisty promotion battle against Port Vale on Saturday without a booking to their name.

And that level headedness is something boss Martin Allen and his management team have been working hard at to achieve.

"We worked on that from day one in pre-season," said Allen, pictured.

"It’s at the training ground, here at home and everywhere we go. You have to praise our players’ behaviour and conduct on and off the field.

"They all work hard to try and make themselves better individually and work hard to get better as a team. They all recognise that discipline, conduct and how you behave is all part of having a discipline to be successful."

No player has received a ban for excessive yellow cards this term and a flurry of red cards earlier in the season have also dried up.

"A few of our young players have been sent off for what I would say were over-exuberant challenges, but not nasty," said Allen.

"There have been few dissents to the referee. We haven’t got any bad apples. They work hard together and support each other and I am proud of how they have conducted themselves."