Gillingham manager Gareth Ainsworth focused on the positives despite his side's elimination from the Carabao Cup against AFC Wimbledon at the MEMS Priestfield Stadium on Tuesday night.
Ethan Coleman scored a late equaliser from Max Clark’s corner to send the game to a penalty shootout. However, Gills would fall to a 4-2 defeat in the ensuing spot kicks.
Ainsworth saw plenty of good things from the game and also discussed how there are clear signs that his side is buying into what he and his coaching staff are trying to build.
Shad Ogie was substituted early in the second half, but the Gills boss believes it was precautionary. He also provided an update on Conor Masterson.
The 52-year-old was delighted for Stan Sargent to get onto the pitch in front of the home crowd, and also discussed how the performance and effort from his side have caused some selection headaches for the trip to Tranmere Rovers at the weekend.
Positives of the performance…
There were massive positives today. The momentum in the second half was incredible. How we haven’t scored more. I know we hit the bar. In the first half, we created some good stuff. We had chances. We had a one-on-one, and we had some set pieces that we should have been better at.
We let ourselves down a little bit with a mistake, and that has cost us. That’s really good because I can work on that. No team is carving us apart. No team is playing around us and carving us to bits. We are solid. It’s our own little mistakes that have cost us that goal in the first half.
Apart from that, I am picking problems and being very picky in the game. I can’t see much going wrong. I have got some huge positives from today.
There were some standout performances for me. I don’t like going into details, and I won’t do. I have got all of their backs. I told them all in the penalty shootout that no matter what happens, I have got your back. We win and lose together.
Signs the team are buying into the philosophy…
We have players running through brick walls, chucking themselves into tackles, recovery runs, first touches in the box, players carrying the ball from the defence and getting set pieces higher up. They are really good signs to me that the boys are buying in.
They will give everything, and that’s half the battle because a lot of managers won’t have the belief that my players have in what we’re trying to do as a staff. They believe in us, and I certainly believe in them.
Update on Shad Ogie and Conor Masterson…
It’s nothing like Conor’s on Saturday. I think that Conor will be out for a couple of weeks at least. I think that Shad was precautionary more than anything. He wanted to carry on, actually, and there was no way that I was going to take a chance with Conor limping off on Saturday.
At the moment, I am planning for no Conor at the weekend.
On Stan Sargent…
I will single out one player, and that is Stan Sargent, getting his proper first team experience. I know the Vertu Trophy is a competition made for development, almost. Stan’s playing in a first team game and I think that he enjoyed it. He was on the pitch when we scored the equaliser, and I think that he was all in on the celebrations.
He will learn a lot from that, but to have one of our young boys from Joe Dunne’s group making that step shows that the signs are good for the future here.
Selection headaches for Saturday…
There are players who have been waiting a long time to get fit and perform. Last year, there were a couple of players who were stop-start and didn’t get going. Under me, they will all get their chance. That’s why I have the smaller squad because everyone can smell the first team.
The three in the midfield swapped around today. Nelson [Khumbeni], Jonny [Williams] and Ethan [Coleman]. There isn’t much difference between the three that started on Saturday and the three that started today. That’s great. That’s strength in depth. Across the back were very similar, and Jake’s [Turner] come in and been solid.
