Gills boss disappointed with performance as Stevenage advance in FA Cup
Justin Edinburgh described Saturday’s performance against Stevenage as completely unacceptable following a 3-0 defeat at the Lamex Stadium.The Gills were knocked out of the FA Cup in the first round by Teddy Sheringham’s League Two side who will now go into Monday evening's draw.
The visitors were denied by sub keeper Chris Day on a few occasions as the game drew to a close, however the damage had already been done with Steven Schumacher, Chris Whelpdale and Armand Gnanduillet all getting on the score sheet.
Speaking after the game the Gills boss said: “That was unacceptable. I’m bitterly disappointed. I didn’t see that coming and it can’t happen again.
"I’ve not had anything like this in my reign at the club – we’ve never had a performance like that.
“We’re all accountable, the players and I, and it won’t be happening again. It’s unlike me not being able to defend the players. It's beggar’s belief.
“When you lose, the first thing you look at is the performance. We had a very good performance at Walsall [last weekend], so you take positives from that.
“Taking the subs out of the equation, there isn’t anybody who has come out of today with any credibility. And that says it all. You can carry one or two [players], you cannot carry 11.
"We spoke about how 60 or 70 per cent of their goals have come from set pieces; we worked on that but two of their goals have come from that.
"That’s poor. We’ve allowed them to get ahead and you can’t always chase games down.”
Justin admitted that some of the players may not feature again for a while, and revealed he has told the squad they will report for training on Sunday.
He added: “Some players have lost their place, and they may lose it for a long time. They’re accountable and that’s the way it is.
“We’ll come in tomorrow. We’ve got a lot of answers to find. There’s always things that have to be addressed and this one can’t be [left to] linger.
"We’ll review it, discuss it, draw a line under it. I don’t buy into the ‘bad day at the office’; we’ll get to the facts of why and then prepare for the next game.”
Stevenage boss Sheringham said: “It’s a stupid game this football we’re involved in. It feels a lot better than last week!
"We came out the blocks, they didn’t, and we took advantage of that. It gave us a leg-up in the game and that’s exactly what we would have asked for. We kept going from there.”