Omar Beckles acknowledged that Saturday's 3-0 defeat at York City was a learning curve for the squad and its young core.
The central defender discussed how Gillingham looked to take the game to their hosts, but losing Will Goodwin and Eli King to injuries during the first-half disrupted the team's rhythm in what became a frantic opening period.
Despite the loss, Beckles has called for the squad to remain grounded, acknowledging that as a senior member of the group, it is up to him to provide support to the younger members of the team as they look to put things right on Saturday against Newport County.
There were 885 Gillingham supporters in attendance at York, and Beckles praised them for their incredible efforts in supporting the team.
Assessment of the game...
They are a really good possession-based team, and you can be negative, sit back and be passive. We went toe-to-toe and put them under real pressure.
Ultimately, moments where you lose players can really affect you. We lost Will [Goodwin], who is a really good platform for us, and then losing Eli [King] as well. Those moments make it hard to find your rhythm. We looked like a team that was struggling to find our rhythm in the first-half.
We were still in the game, and it was 1-0. I felt that we came out in the second-half and showed some real intent. We had a bit of control, and ultimately, momentum swung the other way, and that is part of the learning curve for what is a young group.
Supporting the younger players in the group and continuing to put the building blocks in place despite the setback...
You are never too high and never too low. It is our job as the senior players in the dressing room to get around those individuals, put an arm around them, encourage them, instil a level of confidence, and enable them to believe again. There is a sensible bunch that we have got in there. They are not overly emotional, so I am pretty confident that they will be in the right frame of mind come next Saturday to do all that we can to get three points. We have got a good bunch.
We are a work in progress. What York have done, and they are a good side, is they have built something over many years. What you see is real clarity in what they want to do and what they want to achieve as a club and the players. We are a work in progress, to say the least.
We are really in our infancy of trying to build something here. There are some really good signs of what we have done with this group so far, and we are not getting carried away with that. We want to keep building, so we can get to the point where there is clarity and that we are aligned, and we know what is that we want to do as a club, and how we want to go about doing it.
They are stepping stones. Day-by-day, and game-by-game.
The travelling support...
We are bitterly disappointed. We really wanted to give the travelling fans something to shout about. They came in their droves today. It was a sell-out, and it was 800-plus Gillingham fans, so we appreciate their support, their effort, and them sticking by us and staying until the end of the whistle.
