Rees disappointed with cup defeat but ready for upcoming league battles.
Josh Rees was delighted to get on the scoresheet but was left frustrated as it wasn’t enough to stop Swansea progressing in to the fifth round of the Emirates FA Cup on Saturday.
Rees, bagging his second goal in three games, reduced the deficit to 2-1 shortly after the break but two further goals in the last 15 minutes of the game ensured it was Swansea who went through. The Welsh club won 4-1.
Speaking after the game, Rees said: “We knew what we were coming up against today, they are a very good team. A few years ago, they were in the premier league playing the brand of football we saw today, and it’s hard to defend against. It took us a while to get used to it but once we got the goal, I thought we were right in it and then the third goal is a sucker punch – but that is the quality you can expect from players at this level.
“It’s tiring physically, because you’re having to close down with the way they keep possession but also mentally as you have to be switched on at all times. You can see why they are at the level they are but once we got used to it, I thought we started to cause them some problems.”
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Albeit an away figure was not announced the Gills fans certainly made their presence known as over 1300 fans made the trip to South Wales and Rees was grateful to the faithful that made the journey along the M4.
“Credit to the travelling fans, they were fantastic. We knew it would be a good game and we wanted to give them something to cheer about and we did for a period of the game. They were right up for it. I think it was about 1400 that came up and it was amazing.”
Rees followed up his goal at Burton earlier on in the month with another on Saturday afternoon, heading in from inside the box to give the Gills a lifeline at the beginning of the second half.
Looking back on his strike he added: “Listy has the ability to stretch teams, and he did really well to keep it alive. He has laid it to Mark (Byrne) who put in a fantastic ball and all I had to do was put my head to it. It is something that I can bring to the team, being a goal threat and it needs to carry on now as I need to be contributing to the team.”
Focus now turns to league action as Gillingham host Accrington Stanley on Tuesday evening and Rees emphasised the importance of getting back on track in the league. He said: “We are not going to come up against teams of that quality in League 1. We need to start picking up some points, that’s the reality of it. We’ve got a good group here and we’ve shown we’ve got goals and we’ve shown we can keep some good teams out, but it is all eyes on the league now.”