Steve Lovell delivers his immediate thoughts following the 3-1 defeat to Crewe
Steve Lovell said Gills didn’t get the breaks they needed against Crewe as they slipped to a 3-1 defeat at the Alexandra Stadium.The result sees the Kent club fall into the relegation places of Sky Bet League One, but the U18s Coach said the players gave everything they had.
Speaking after the game he said: “I think they performed admirably, the conditions were not very good and in the first half was against a very strong wind and we dug in.
“We started bright and had a couple of chances perhaps to go in the lead and you have to take your opportunities. The first goal kills us after all the hard work, we pushed forward and created things but when those things go against you you’ve got to keep going.
“In the second half we piled on the pressure and once we got the goal I thought, perhaps with a bit of luck, we could have got the second and had we got it we might have gone on to get the third.
“Everyone has given everything for the club this afternoon and you can’t ask any more than that.
“That’s the true Gillingham spirit and that’s the only spirit we know at this Football Club, you roll your sleeves up and have a go and at half time there was belief we could win the game and that’s testament to the players and the staff.
“I thought we had that belief and when we scored I thought we could build on it but sometimes you have to give the opposition a bit of credit and they restricted us to getting clear cut opportunities.”
The first and third goals were subject of some debatable decisions by the officials, the penalty kick which opened the scoring came as a result of the ball appearing to go out of play near the dugout area with the third striking the arm of Uche Ikpeazu before he scored.
Lovell conceded decisions hadn’t gone Gillingham’s way, he said:
“I don’t want to get into this kind of thing but when we’re all standing there and their players are coming up to us saying the ball was out its disappointing. Then they get the penalty from it which is one we need to look at but I thought it was a soft one.
“You usually work off the reaction of players and we’ve got a very good, honest bunch of players here and it was such a blatant handball, we could see it from where we were.
“They get the third from it and that sums up the afternoon, we didn’t get the breaks.”