Gills first-team coach Steve Lovell speaks to the press following Saturday's 3-2 defeat to MK Dons
, despite a much-improved second-half performance.3-2 defeat to MK Dons at Stadium MK on Saturday afternoonGillingham first-team coach Steve Lovell was left frustrated that another slow start and a sloppy late goal saw the Gills fall to a “sickening”
A stunning opener from Robbie Muirhead and a neatly-taken Harvey Barnes finish looked to have set MK on course for the three points. However, the Gills responded in the second half through an exquisite Cody McDonald strike before Josh Wright tucked home the rebound from his own penalty kick in the 90th minute.
Unfortunately, the drama wasn’t complete as Dean Lewington got up highest to loop a stoppage-time header into the net to give MK the three points.
Both sides finished the game with 10 men; George Williams was sent off for bringing down McDonald in the move that led to Wright's penalty, before Dack received a second yellow for dissent following MK's winner.
Lovell on...the defeat:“To come back after being two-nil down, equalise after working really hard in the second half, and then concede in near enough the last minute of the game again is just unbelievable really. It’s sickening.
“It shouldn’t be that we go two goals behind [before we] start playing. They can play – they’re a decent group of young men, but it’s no good just coming out for 45 minutes and doing it.
“[MK's three] goals should have been stopped, they [come from] people not running with their markers. [The second goal] was a knife through butter, straight through the middle.”
Lovell on…the final five games of the season: “We’ve got five massive games to come now. We’re a team in there, we’re a group in there, we’re all together in this and we’re all fighting together to get what we want. If we can get that help and make it a positive five games then we will get out of it.
“There’s not a bad egg in the dressing room, there’s not a bad person; they all want the same thing but they’ve got to start taking responsibility on the pitch. They’ve got to look at themselves, roll their sleeves [up] and dig in.”
Lovell on...the 650 away fans: “It’s fantastic to have the amount of supporters that we had [here today]. I would have been booing with them after that first-half performance. The second half was better and if we had got a point out of the game we would have been happier.
“It’s a club that we all love. My involvement with the club goes back years. We’ve [Ady Pennock and I] played for this football club, we’ve been successful at this club. We know what it takes to win games and send the fans home happy, so you can imagine how it feels when we’re standing there after 10 minutes [being 2-0 down].”