Gills Manager gives thoughts following 3-0 loss to Watford
Gills Manager Martin Allen said there were encouraging signs despite watching his side lose their final pre-season friendly 3-0 at the hands of Watford at the MEMS Priestfield Stadium.
All goals came in the first half with Matej Vydra scoring twice and Connor Smith grabbing one as Gianfranco Zola’s side took a commanding lead in to the half time interval.
The hosts came out fighting in the second period and perhaps deserved at least a goal for their efforts. Charlie Allen, Chris Whelpdale and Danny Kedwell all going close – the latter getting the best chance of the half but could only strike the post.
It was the first defeat Martin Allen has suffered as first team manager, and after the game he said:
“I thought in the first half we were nowhere near where we have been. I thought in the second half we were superb and there were some players tonight who have come out with a great deal of credit.
“They have really pushed themselves forward; you have to remember we had a good team performance on Saturday so some of these other players were looking to push in to that.
“Some have set themselves right up for it which is great news – at half time I asked them for a bit more tenacity, a bit more self-belief, to be a bit more competitive, a bit more tigerish in the tackle and a little bit more courage because I thought in the first half they were better than us, which is fine.
“I still want to compete and I don’t think we fully competed with them in the first half so all credit to the players for a great second half.
“We said try and get a result and to be fair to them they dug in and I thought 0-0 in the second half was probably unfair because we had a good few chances to score goals ourselves so it was a good night.”