I've tried scratching me head all day as I'm sure there's some old cliché about how if you battle, you never really lose, but when I realised that I was probably thinking of the old Scarborough FC motto on the badge, I stopped all scratching.

But rest assured whilst we came away as the losing side, it was a performance to be proud of, a fact shown by the reception given to the Dale players at the final whistle at which it appeared every single travelling supporter remained behind, despite having the defeat shoved in our faces, to applaud the Dale players off.

The game itself had us battling throughout. We probably shaded possession in a game where chances for either side were at a premium, but with the scoreline being in the home side's favour for the majority of the evening, fans of the Gills would no doubt say they were comfortable with the way of the game rather than holding on.

We started well enough, with a couple of changes from Thursday's game. Alfie and Buckley made way as was expected, with Daggers and JT coming in to the starting line up.

But whilst we had the early possession, with a couple of sniffs without causing any panic to the veteran keeper Royce, it was the home team who took the lead with about ten minutes on the clock.

I suppose in year's gone by we'd have made more of a big deal over the handball which lead to the goal. A McArdle clearance hit the hand of Oli, who despite not meaning to handle the ball, got a huge advantage from it, and despite the referee's perfect view of it, you'd have to say that a free kick would be given nine times out often. Perhaps we should have Drogba-ed the ref.

The fortunate deflection allowed the Gills to catch us on the back foot as they immediately launched a wave of attack, and a cross from the left wing was met by Simeon Jackson at the front post who finished with a lovely touch.

The goal rattled Dale for a couple of minutes or so, and a mentally weaker side could have crumbled at that point, but we shook ourselves down, as we soon found ourselves competing as we were earlier in the game.

If we were being ultra critical, you could say that the possession didn't lead to much other than a weak Rundle free kick which went straight down the throat of Royce, but it was enough to let the home side know that we weren't just going to roll over and die.

Both sides pressed but it remained very cagey for long periods, but with time running out in the first half, we got the breakthrough that our efforts had deserved.

Good work by Joe Thompson saw the ball spill to Chris Dagnall who turned his defender and just managed to get to the ball before a lurking Gary Jones could and he fired the ball over the head of Royce to get things back on level terms for Dale. Perhaps this wouldn't be our last trip down South this season.

The second half kicked off after the okay from the Sky man and an incident where Keith Hill seemed to wind up every overweight Gills fan on the way back to his dugout just by being Keith.

But it didn't take too long for Gillingham to regain the lead when they were awarded a spot kick after McArdle brought Gills' Nutter down in the box.

Television replays later showed that there wasn't actually any contact between McArdle and the Gills attacker, but touch or no touch, you couldn't make any case for his defence, and whilst we were all hoping for a repeat of Fielding's Rotherham act, it was all pretty straightforward, with Jackson getting his second of the game.

Aside from it almost becoming 3-1 very soon after, when a header cannoned off the crossbar, it was pretty much a case of whether Dale could grab an equaliser from now on. Buckley, Shaw and Alf were all introduced at various points as we went for it, but we found the Gills backline standing tall at all times, limiting to us to half chances at best.

With time running out, we had Dagnall trying to win us a penalty but it was a hopeful appeal like a bowler trying to call for an LBW and a caught behind off the same delivery.

And deep deep deep deep into injury time, Buckley had a chance but his low drive went just past the post and with it went our hopes of a second successive trip to Wembley as it proved to be the last piece of action of the game.

At the final whistle, we had the surprise sight of a pitch invasion at the end of a game rather than with a couple of minutes or so to go, and whilst the majority were no doubt in celebration, such is the history of fierce rivalry between Dale and Gills (exactly), it was disappointing to see a sizeable number of Gills fans who opted to celebrate our demise rather than their own achievement. You can't buy class. Or even get it on a month's loan.

And so, one of the longest drives back of the season proved to be arguably the longest drive back that we've ever had as a club. Amid the snores and the post mortems, conversations would have varied from what might have been this season to what might be next season.

It's important to take some sort of perspective on the whole thing. It's not spin, but conversations of the "where did it all go wrong?" are a thousand miles away from reality. If one of our highest league positions of our professional times is getting it wrong, can we get it wrong again next season please Keith?