The Gills boss assesses the weekend's 2-1 defeat to Wimbledon at ME7.
Gillingham manager Steve Evans was disappointed with the performance of his side, as their 15 match unbeaten run came to an end against AFC Wimbledon on Saturday following a 2-1 defeat at MEMS Priestfield Stadium.
Wimbledon were ahead just after half-time through former Gills striker Joe Pigott, but the hosts thought they had earned a point late on when Regan Charles-Cook headed home. However, it wasn’t to be for the Gills, as Callum Reilly fired in late on to give Wimbledon all three points.
The Gills boss said: “I’m more disappointed with the performance, results normally reflect performances, and did we deserve to lose it? Probably not, but we didn’t do enough to win it either. It was poor from us, as poor as we’ve been, especially in the first half. It took our substitutes to give us a bit of a spark.
“They get a late goal, and I think from first site we get three or four chances to clear it, and we don’t clear it, and we pay the price.”
Evans admitted that his side had to go for the winner at the end, despite being reduced to ten men due to Max Ehmer’s injury, saying: “We got the goal and then we have one or two brief attacks, and they’re obviously sitting in for a point, hanging on a bit. We obviously go down to ten, it’s difficult. We’ve got a very attacking line up at the end, trying to win a game that we thought we had to win."
The Gills manager is hopeful that they will receive good news on captain Max Ehmer, who went off with a shoulder injury with five minutes to play. Evans said: “I think his shoulder just popped out, Max has had this problem for a couple of years. Sometimes he just pops it back in and it settles down and he’s fine after a few days."
Evans also accepted that his side would probably need to go and get a result at Sunderland next week to keep their play-off hopes alive, but says he feels it is still possible for the Gills to stay in the top six. He said: “We have to go to Sunderland and get a positive result. We never said that we had to win every game, but it’s a sucker punch because this is a game we expect to win.
"But we have to use this, the hurt you get, take the criticism that comes despite the fact it’s 15 unbeaten. We didn’t do enough today, we were second best all over the pitch.”