Gills head coach Ady Pennock speaks to the press following his side's 4-1 defeat against Rochdale on Saturday.
on Saturday. 4-1 defeat to Rochdale at the Crown Oil ArenaHead coach Adrian Pennock was left disappointed by some of his players' performances as the Gills fell to a
Striker Josh Parker cancelled out Nat Mendez-Laing’s superb opener in the first period but further goals from Ian Henderson, Callum Camps and Peter Vincenti gave the hosts a deserved victory.
Pennock on…the performance: “It was a poor performance. People weren’t doing their jobs. You ask players to do things in training and in the first five minutes [we] get ripped to pieces.
“The goals we conceded were very poor and we’re giving teams goals and a leg-up in the first five minutes. I thought we responded well and we could have made it 2-1 but the second goal is just not good enough.
“We’ve got to go back to basics because we’re not doing them right. I’m bitterly disappointed."
Pennock on…defensive problems: “We lose Zesh Rehman [who received a red card in the second half following two bookings] and since I’ve been here I don’t think we’ve had the same four or three or five in defence, or the same team, and it does mess you up a little bit.
“Deji [Oshilaja] was [missing through] a groin injury – I thought he played very well on Tuesday [against Bolton Wanderers] but he came in on Thursday and he was feeling his groin so unfortunately he couldn’t play.
“We’ve got three fit defenders and that’s it at the moment. It’s a big disappointment, and we’re being tested.”
Pennock on…regrouping for the rest of the season: “We’ve got to learn from it. We’re all in it together and we’ve got to stick together and move on.
“We just can’t keep relying on results [elsewhere] until the end of the season, we’ve got to worry about ourselves and get three points as soon as possible. I am 100% confident [of keeping Gillingham safe from relegation] - they are good honest boys.
“We’ve regrouped in there and we’ll really look forward to the game against Peterborough – it’s another massive game."