Peter Taylor reflects on midweek defeat to Sheffield United at Priestfield
Peter Taylor said his team endured a `frustrating evening` after suffering a narrow 1-0 defeat at the hands of Sheffield United at MEMS Priestfield Stadium on Wednesday evening.
Conor Coady netted just before the interval to put the Blades ahead, and despite their best efforts, Gills were unable to find a way past Mark Howard who managed to keep a clean sheet for the visitors.
Peter thought his team were the better side in the first half and felt if they had taken one of their early opportunities it could have been a different game.
Speaking to the media after the match he said: “If you’re a Manager, all I ever ask is for the players to make sure they put in an honest shift and they do that all the time.
“Their heads never dropped at half time; they kept going, we needed something to drop for us and if that had happened we may have gone on to win the match, you never know.
“The lads are working incredibly hard and I have so much respect for the way they do that. Unfortunately it wasn’t our night but we need to make sure we don’t drop our heads too much.
“They [his players] deserved to get a goal. It wasn’t a case of a rubbish attacking performance, it wasn’t that.”
The first goal saw debutant Ryan Innis suffer a hamstring injury in the build-up which saw him replaced by Leon Legge, but Peter insisted the ball should not have been put out by the opposition.
He added: “For a head injury 100% but in that situation no you carry on.
“I think Ryan went half way off the pitch, I didn’t see it but he needs to learn from that. I suppose he was thinking he would play people onside if he stayed on.
“He had a good start to the game and had a good shot and could have toe poked another one close to the goal and then had a header so he had a good debut and was learning all the time.
“I think he would have settled down a bit more but unfortunately he got the injury and I think he will be out for two or three weeks now.
“He’s impressed me and I’ve asked him if he’s had a hamstring before and he hasn’t. So that’s bad luck but you just hope being a young lad he recovers very quickly.
“Leon did very well and was very determined. I think he was saying `I’ll show you Taylor that I’m a good centre half` and that’s what you would expect.
“Not a problem, he won every header and did well.”
Certain decisions by the officials were met with disapproval by home supporters inside the stadium, but Taylor said he felt the referee had a decent game.
He said: “I think it was just a frustrating night, I’m sure both Managers felt as though we should have had certain decisions and maybe got some we didn’t think we were going to get. That evens itself out.
“I don’t think the ref cost us a result; at the end of the day the ball just didn’t drop. There are times when we had headers at the end where if the ball had dropped in a different area we might have scored.
“In the first half I thought we were the better team and did some good things.”
Peter’s post match press conference can be seen in full on Gills Player.