DELIGHTED Gillingham boss Peter Taylor admitted he would have been happy to leave Turf Moor with a draw last night -- never mind a 3-0 win which gives his side a chance of snatching the automatic promotion spot behind Preston.

The Gills played with just one striker and regularly got 10 men behind the ball as they declared their intentions from the off.

But the tactic worked to perfection thanks to a gifted first goal and then two more following second-half counter-attacks as Taylor's men did their best to avoid a potential repeat of last season's play-off final heartache.

"Preston are probably going to win it but anybody else would want that second spot," Taylor insisted.

"I still think there are four or five teams that have still possibly got that chance. Last night was a good night for us and I would say winning here has helped us towards the play-offs.

"But it's that tight we have given ourselves a good chance of being realistic and trying to get the second place."

The former England under-21 manager added: "This was a massive game for us. In our run-in we knew we had to come here and go to Millwall so for us it was a massive result.

"I would have settled for a draw coming here so to take all three points is brilliant for us. "Burnley threw everything at us to try and get an equaliser and, of course, left themselves open. We would have done exactly the same. So it was nice to get three goals but the three points is most important."

Burnley, whose automatic promotion hopes now rest with other results thanks to a first defeat in nine games, had no answer to Gillingham's game-plan once they had gone behind and captain Steve Davis was left to rue a missed opportunity.

He said: "Obviously it was disappointing. We were keyed up for the game, we were at home and we needed three points to take us into second position.

"Everyone knows what was at stake but goals at vital times were our undoing.

"Obviously it was a great opportunity to go into second position because then the other teams have got to catch you. But it hasn't turned out that way.

"Possibly we played the occasion rather than playing the game. Maybe the occasion got the better of a few, I don't know."