Gillingham edged out high-flying Wrexham to boost their own promotion hopes in League 2.
Tim Dieng scored early in the second half for Gillingham to clinch a win at Priestfield in front of a home sell-out crowd. Victory moved the Gills up to seventh in the table.
This was a first visit to Priestfield for Wrexham since a five-minute Bob Taylor hat-trick left them reeling back in 1999.
There was a first appearance in the league this season for veteran keeper Glenn Morris, the 40-year-old replacing injured Jake Turner. He didn’t have anything troubling to deal with in the opening half but was called on to make a couple of crucial saves after the break as the Gills kept Wrexham out.
Head coach Stephen Clemence switched his forward players again after Josh Waker and Jayden Clarke struggled to make an impact in the midweek draw with Stockport. Oli Hawkins and Ashley Nadesan were rewarded for their positive performance off the bench with a starting role against Wrexham.
The Gills were offering a lot more as an attacking threat than they did in that match against Stockport but with it were susceptible to being hit on the break.
Wrexham wasted a couple of good chances on the counter when one difficult effort was fired into the top row of the Rainham End and another from Ryan Barnett was blasted into the packed home end.
There was a home sell-out for the match against a Wrexham team getting plenty of headlines thanks to their Hollywood owners.
Dieng had a couple of half chances for the Gills before Remeao Hutton shot into the keeper’s arms and Ethan Coleman asked more questions with a 20-yard drive that was tipped over.
While Wrexham had threatened and seen more of the ball the Gills kept them at arm’s length and prevented them from having a direct shot on target in the opening half. Morris had palmed an early ball in from Jacob Mendy out for a corner.
A timely clearance from Wrexham’s Max Cleworth denied Hawkins a shooting chance after Nadesan nodded the ball into his path.
The Gills opened the scoring in the 55th minute. Max Clark’s free-kick was met by Conor Masterson and his ball back across the face of the goal was converted by Dieng.
Mendy headed over for Wrexham while Nadesan’s low angled drive wasn’t far off for the Gills.
Morris got away with one after being unable to hold a shot from Elliot Lee but then got up quickly to deny Steven Fletcher as he tried to hook the loose ball over the line from close range.
The Gills managed to see the game out to claim a first win in five at home after four successive draws.
Gillingham: Morris, Hutton, Clark (Malone 76mins), Masterson, Ehmer, Ogie, Coleman, Dieng, J Williams (McKenzie 76mins), Nadesan (Clarke 76mins), Hawkins. Subs not used: Holtam, S Williams, Mahoney, Walker.
Wrexham: Okonkwo, Tunnicliffe (Young 78mins), O’Connell, Cleworth, Mendy (Davies 78mins), Barnett (Bolton 78mins), Cannon, McClean, Fletcher (Dalby 78mins), Lee, Marriott (Mullin 69mins). Subs not used: Howard, Tozer.
Referee: Scott Simpson
Attendance: 8,693 (844 away)
