Lovell left disappointed but remains positive following defeat in Devon.
Steve Lovell was left disappointed following Gillingham’s 3-1 defeat to Plymouth Argyle at Home Park on Tuesday evening.
Freddie Ladapo (2) and sub Ruben Lameiras were on target for the hosts, and although Luke O’Neill struck late, it wasn’t enough to bring Gillingham back into the game and they left empty handed.
After the game Steve said: “The first-half was poor, very poor from our perspective. They scored two good goals; the first one was an excellent finish and the second one we could have dealt with but we didn’t get near them.
“I thought, at times, it was very, very poor. As poor as a half as we’ve had this year, but in the second-half it changed. We had a go, but it’s too late – you have a mountain to climb.
“We went three at the back, we had to go at them but in the first half we gave them too much time on the ball. We didn’t stay with the runners, we didn’t close them down – we didn’t do anything. It was so disappointing.
“None of them can come knocking on my door if they don’t play Saturday. They’ve got to look at themselves; I said at half-time you have to go out, roll your sleeves up and show some pride and to be fair they had a go.”
Lovell remained upbeat for the upcoming game against Bradford which could see the return of Brandon Hanlan, Regan Charles-Cook and Dean Parrett.
He added: “Hopefully we will have three or four people back for the weekend which will help us tremendously because the ones that have gone in haven’t done it. Let’s get the others back as quick as possible.
“We have got to get results now, we have a spell of six home games in seven and if I can get these players back we’ve got a chance of picking up quite a few points, and they are important players to us.
“We can’t have another first-half performance like that. It’s a battle and we need players who are going to stand up and fight for us in that battle.”