Gaffer reflects on Charlton defeat.
Gillingham Manager Steve Lovell said he couldn’t fault the effort of his players following Saturday's 2-0 defeat against Charlton at The Valley.
First-half goals from Ben Reeves and Tariqe Fosu sealed all three points for the Addicks as they strengthened their hold on a play-off place.
Reflecting on the game Lovell said: “Apart from the goals, Tomas Holy had very little to do. That was the difference today. We have all the possession, all the balls in the box, we created a number of chances but just lacked that bit of quality in the final third.
“They all gave everything and did everything they could to win the game, unfortunately they came up a bit short. They kept going; I can’t say anything against them. It’s tough coming here but when we are in control of possession we need to make it count.
“I don’t think the performance was the problem. We have to make sure when we are in control, we get a goal. I still believed that with quarter of an hour to go we could get one and have a go.”
Gillingham were without top scorer Tom Eaves for the trip to The Valley, but Lovell hopes he will be back for Boxing Day. He said: “He’s injured, he tweaked a thigh in a shooting drill we did on Tuesday so we didn’t want to risk him today but hopefully he should be fine for Boxing Day.
“I wanted to give DJ another run out, he’s a young boy and I just think he struggled to get in the game so I wanted to bring on that little bit of experience, so I put Mark back at the bottom of the diamond and I think that worked well, I thought Callum [Reilly] looked sharp.
“We said it would be a tough period over Christmas but that’s why you’re in the job; we look forward to the next one. Overall I thought it was a good performance from us.”