Things to work on, says Gills boss.
Steve Lovell said he will use Saturday’s defeat at Colchester in as positive a manner as possible to put things right before the league season begins next Saturday.
Gills lost 5-1 at the JobServe Community Stadium, playing the entire second half with ten men following Mark Byrne’s red card just prior to the interval.
Although the manager said the result was disappointing, a lot of things have been decided for him as a result of the performance.
He said: “It’s disappointing to concede five goals but these things happen; I’ve just said to the boys no-one likes to lose 5-1 but we’ll look at it and it makes our mind up regarding certain things.
“We have a week to put it right and sometimes things like this can be a positive thing because we can work on the things that went wrong, but it’s the first time in pre-season that we didn’t look sharp.
“Today was finding out who the personnel would be and I think I’ve found that out. I’ve got choices to make and decisions to make and in a way a lot of them have been made up for me today.”
One question which went unanswered was whether Mark Byrne would be available for selection for the Accrington game next Saturday following his dismissal.
Lovell replied: “We’ll have to wait and see; I don’t think there was much in it.
“The league will look at it, hopefully it won’t come to that [suspension] and he’ll be all right.
“Mark felt he was elbowed; everyone then got in and the linesman has said Mark needed to be sent off but Mark is adamant the bloke had him by the throat.”
Three notable absentees to the starting XI at Colchester were Tom Eaves, Josh Rees and Elliott List. The manager updated the media on their current condition.
He said: “Elliott has hurt his shoulder, he fell awkwardly and that could be a couple of weeks and Josh Rees could also miss a couple of weeks.
“These things happen in training and it will happen up and down the country. Hopefully they’ll be back sooner rather than later. We want to get them back as soon as we can.
“Conor Wilkinson has got through Thamesmead and will be available for next weekend’s game and Tom isn’t too far away either.”
Steve was asked whether he felt he needed to go back into the transfer market. He replied:
“No, it’s only one game. Our squad is fine, today is an off day and it’s a day at the office we want to forget, we will forget, and move on.
“With the injuries we’ve got it gives other people a chance.
“There is nothing like the league games and that’s what we are looking forward to.
“We just need to work on a formation this week ready to go to Accrington and give them a game because that’s where it counts. “