Gills Manager says lessons must be learnt...
Martin Allen says he is confident his team can regain top spot in the division in the near future after suffering a 2-1 defeat to Port Vale at the weekend.
A header from Tom Pope and an own goal from Stuart Nelson put Gillingham two behind against Vale inside the first 25 minutes, and despite an immediate reply from Danny Kedwell and relentless second half pressure, they just couldn’t find a way through for an equaliser.
Martin is adamant the side can improve and said lessons can be learnt from the weekend’s loss.
Speaking after the game he said:
“I said on Thursday that the winning team will only get three points – of course we had won today we would have gone five points clear with a game in hand and that would have definitely been significant.
“We have had another setback after two fantastic performances away from home. We need to dust ourselves down, rest the players on Sunday, get them back together, we will chat about Saturday before we start preparing for our next game against Rochdale.
“We have to learn from today though that’s for sure and we have to improve what we do here, there’s no doubt about that.
“You couldn’t ask for any more of what we all do but we’ve got to find a way forward that we are going to improve and that’s the challenge. “
Martin praised Danny Kedwell for the part he played in the match, and thinks he and Deon Burton are a good partnership up front.
He said: “Not only his work rate but he played well aswell. We had a lot of games so I thought he needed to be rested, Adam Birchall has come in and done fantastically well in the two away games but I thought today was made for Deon and Danny.
“They have a good working relationship and the results when they have played together over the season have been very good.
“He scored a brilliant goal and played well generally, but it wasn’t to be.”
Martin was asked if the pressure of the home crowd has had any effect on the players and if expectancy levels unsettle the squad.
He replied: “Maybe, maybe. We haven’t looked like conceding any goals and we always look dangerous so we’ll chat with the players.
“Essentially at the end of the day it’s the players that go on the field and we will talk with them, go through the DVD’s, watch the games and learn from the players and how they feel because ultimately its their responsibility once they cross that white line.
“I have to make those decisions but we will learn together and it’s the same for all of us and our task is to improve what we do here and there is no doubt it needs to be improved.
I don’t care about the pressure of being top of the league. We’ve been top of the league for the whole season and now we have a challenge on our hands to get back there, go past them and overtake them and that’s what we’ll do.”