Gills Manager looks to positives following Millwall loss
Martin Allen said his side showed a lot of courage to put on a strong second half display in the 3-1 defeat to Millwall at MEMS Priestfield Stadium on Saturday.
gave the Lions a healthy advantage going in to the half time break, and although Adebayo Akinfenwa came off the bench to get one back for the hosts, the Gills were unable to force their way back in to contention.Steve Morison and a solitary strike from Andy KeoghA brace from
Martin conceded his team were not at their best in the first 45 minutes, but was encouraged by the display following the interval.
Talking after the game he said: “When you play Championship teams you need to step up and match them. To be honest I didn’t enjoy the first half – I don’t think we played how we play but I thought it was a tremendous turnaround in the second half.
“We showed a lot of courage and guts to get back in to it – I would say it looked like a tired performance, it’s very rare we get one of those.
“That’s OK, it’s better to get those out of the way now than in a couple of weeks’ time.”
Martin chose to take positives from the game and said he can learn a lot from the performance, but is pleased the squad are looking increasingly fit.
He added: “They are fantastically fit, very strong and they are a great bunch of lads. No-one will be more disappointed than them but the important thing is when these days happen, and they will do over the next 10 months, it’s how you respond and how you deal with it when you are not quite how you want to be.
“We’ll keep calm and cool, deal with it on Monday and try and freshen them up ready for Tuesday night.
“Sometimes when it’s not so good you learn a little bit more – I was chuffed to bits with the last 20 minutes when the young lads came on with all the extra training they have had to do.
“I was delighted with them – believe it or not I wanted to get another goal back to get it to 3-2 and see if we could get back.
“The young players all did very well and played with high energy and pace. If you haven’t got those ingredients within your group then you don’t win.
“Against Ipswich they were superb so we know it’s in the locker.
“I’d like to play them when we are at full speed and properly take them on because we haven’t given them a game. When we put our best team out against their best team and both are at full cylinders it will be a different game trust me.
“We were short today.”
here.To watch the first part of Martin’s post match interview, click