Gills boss gives his immediate reaction following the 3-0 defeat to Chesterfield at the ProAct Stadium
Justin Edinburgh described Tuesday night’s 3-0 defeat against Chesterfield as `disappointing` after his side were well beaten by the Spireites at the ProAct Stadium.A lot of the damage was done early on with Sam Clucas and Jay O’Shea finding the net within the first 12 minutes, and Gillingham struggled to create chances although Tommy Lee had to look alert to deny John Marquis before a free kick from Bradley Dack narrowly missed the target.
The Manager said the team gave themselves a lot of work to do after conceding two quick fire goals.
He said: “We gave ourselves a mountain to climb being two nil down within 12 minutes and it’s very unlike us and very uncharacteristic.
“Once you chase a game like that you leave yourselves open to get picked off, it’s a very disappointing night.
“We spoke about turning round, having a fast start and putting them on the back foot and we did the total opposite.
“We huffed and puffed and had a period in the first half where we put ourselves in the game but apart from that Chesterfield dominated us and deserved to win the game.”
Justin was asked if defensive mistakes contributed to the early setback.
He replied: “Without a doubt, they didn’t have to work hard for them. We spoke about how we would set out and what we were going to do and within 10 minutes all of those things were undone.
“It wasn’t through Chesterfield’s good play, it was from our naivety, slackness and going against what we’ve been good at and it’s extremely frustrating.
“There are a list of excuses if you want them but we prepared properly and did everything correct – we know it’s tough but other teams have had to do it. We were just very naive in the first two goals.”
Joe Martin was replaced by Jake Hessenthaler in the first half and Justin outlined what the prognosis was.
“Hamstring, quickest is probably two weeks,” he said. “It’s a blow and it’s a bad thing on a disappointing evening.”