Aldershot Town opened the match in high-tempo and some neat footwork followed by a pin-point pass by Glen Little saw Aaron Morris almost open the scoring for the home side when he fired a warning shot within the opening minute. However, Nicky Southall found himself in the right place at the right time and managed to block the early effort.
The Gills then sat up and took notice and four minutes later, Luke Rooney latched on to pass from Dennis Oli to crack a thunderous effort towards Shots keeper Jordan Clement who would have stood no chance had the effort been slightly lower, but as it was, the shot flew inches over the crossbar.
With nine minutes on the clock, Little once again showed his class when he evaded his marker and delivered an inch perfect ball which blazed across the face of the goal and as Damian Spencer lunged forwards at full stretch, Jack Evans somehow managed to deflect the ball centimetres away from the advancing Shots striker.
By now, The Shots had the upper hand and within seconds, Luke Guttridge who was having a great game, smashed an effort goal bound out of nothing, only to be denied by a fine save from Daren Hawkes who turned his effort around the post.
The game continued to be end-to-end and two minutes later Clement called for the ball but flapped in biblical proportions and allowed the ball to fall to Connor Essam, but fortunately for the young keeper, Essam failed to capitalise on the mistake and The Shots threw bodies in the way to keep his effort out.
With the Gills having missed their chance, the pendulum returned in The Shots' favour and the impressive Guttridge finally did enough to break the deadlock.
After Little found himself with space, he appeared to outrun the younger opposition along the far byline before linking with Jermaine McGlashan who stepped inside his marker and ran towards the goal-line before laying the ball back towards the 'D' where Guttridge blasted an unstoppable low strike which nestled in the back of the net with sixteen minutes on the clock.
Jack Evans picked up a knock during the move which made the goal and was replaced by James Brown and shortly afterwards Mark McCammon was unlucky not to level the scores after a good attacking move found him unmarked on the edge of the penalty area, but he was only able to send the ball high over the crossbar and into an empty East Bank.
Five minutes later and Guttridge was once again displaying his credentials for a place against Stockport County this coming weekend, when he took the ball on a darting run through the Gills' ranks before crossing the ball from the touchline to Wade Small who had risen high, but his resulting header scuffed the top of the crossbar and went out to safety.
It was Small again moments after the resulting goal kick found its way to John Halls after his long-range pass slipped its way through several players and after bursting forwards to the edge of the penalty area, it took a world class tackle from Callum Davies on the edge of the box to prevent the forward from pulling the trigger on his effort.
On thirty-nine minutes, Spencer turned provider when he headed a ball forwards from the halfway line which fell to Small whose well-timed run saw him beat the offside trap but again, as he raced forwards, Gillingham defenders grouped together to crowd him out and nullify the threat.
With a minute until half-time, Little found himself clean through but his effort was hit directly at the keeper. Halls found himself picking up a needless booking for dissent a short time later and in added time, Spencer managed to pick out McGlashan who raced forwards to beat the defence, but there was nobody joining him in the attack so by the time he put his cross into the box, it went harmlessly wide of the far post before the referee signalled for half-time.
Adam Mekki replaced McGlashan at half-time and two minutes into the restart, a solo effort by Spencer ended in comedy rather than the goal it so richly deserved.
Having picked up the ball on the halfway line, the big striker began to surge forwards and shrugged off the challenge of his two markers who were doing their best to niggle at his ankles.
As he bore down on goal leaving the defenders in his wake, he remained cool and composed but just as he reached the penalty spot and spectators were putting their mortgages on a Shots' second, the ball was somehow back-heeled to empty space and a great attack move broke down.
With the Gills picking up the loose ball, it was them who then almost scored at the opposite end of the pitch when following a flowing attacking move, McCammon saw his rifled effort cannoned off Clement's legs and into safety.
The Shots scored a deserved second on fifty-two minutes when a similar move to earlier on in the game saw Little put Small through once again.
Small jinked his way through the Gills' defensive line and sped into the box before curling the ball beyond the helpless Hawkes.
The visitors should have lessened the deficit on the hour mark when Clement flapped at another cross but after mis-hitting his first effort, Andy White sent his second bite of the cherry miles over the bar.
The Shots had another couple of half-chances during the following ten minutes but the heat of the unexpectedly warm weather began to look as if it was taking its toll and the pace began to finally slow down.
With seventy-eight minutes on the clock however, the Gills managed to pull one back out of nothing when Stefan Payne struck a speculative effort from about twenty-two yards out.
While his effort looked like bread and butter stuff for Clement, the low strike took a bounce just in front of the Shots keeper before finding its way into the net.
The game continued at slower pace and fourteen minutes later the scores were all level when another innocuous attack saw Payne lob the ball to the far post leaving an unmarked McCammon to grab the goal that his performance had deserved.
With the scores all level, it was Small who could have sealed the three points for The Shots when he picked up the pace and found himself free in the box, but with only the keeper to beat, his shot struck the base of the left upright and off to safety.
The Shots: Jordan Clement, Aaron Morris (Bradley Pegg), Nathan Green - trialist, Luke Guttridge, John Halls (Henrik Breimyr), Clayton Fortune, Jermaine McGlashan (Adam Mekki), Reece Connolly, Damian Spencer, Wade Small and Glen Little.
Not used: Jack Randall.
Gillingham: Daren Hawkes, Nicky Southall, Jack Evans (James Brown), Callum Davies, Connor Essam, Kevin Maher, Luke Rooney, Stanley Aborah (Takura Mtandari - trialist), Mark McCammon, Dennis Oli (Andy White) and Stefan Payne.
Not used: Thomas Brunt and Sam Fisher.
Referee: Andy Davies
Assistant Referee: Dean Appleby
Assistant Referee: Chris Evans
Fourth Official: Nick Iddiols