James Brophy admitted that the squad were frustrated with the manner in which Gillingham lost late on against Barrow in the Emirates FA Cup first round on Saturday, and knows that they have a big week coming up to ensure that there is a positive reaction.
The left wing-back on the day believes that the Gills created more than enough to win the game during the first-half, but that they lacked that clinical edge, ultimately costing them the tie. Brophy reiterated the importance of converting your opportunities when they do arrive.
Gillingham have a busy week, as they travel to Northampton Town in the Jersey Mike's Trophy before heading to Colchester in league action. The 32-year-old realises the opportunity that the group has to react well and get back to winning ways.
The mood in the dressing room post-match...
Frustrated and heavily disappointed. I think that if you picked a way to lose a game that would be most gutting, that would probably be it. It's a disappointing day for all of us all round.
Being punished for lacking that clinical edge...
I think that we made enough. I don't think that we were good enough to win it because you have to be clinical. I think that we made as good opportunities as we have all season in the first-half. The game plan in the first-half to create the opportunities worked. As I said, I think that they were good opportunities, but we have to convert them.
We have to convert them, and we felt that their main threats came from set pieces. We gave them too many in the first-half, and then definitely in the last five to ten minutes of the game, we gave them too many. If you don't take your chances, then you always leave yourself vulnerable to that moment happening.
The importance of having a positive reaction in the upcoming week...
It's extremely gutting for all of us. We have let ourselves down because I think that you saw in the first-half that there was a game plan that could have worked, and we just didn't capitalise on it well enough. The mood is obviously low, really low right now.
I suppose that, as players, the only kind of positive outcome of this is that you react really well in the next two games. We have got a big week coming up, with Tuesday and Saturday. The last heavy defeat, we went to an away game and reacted well to it, so that's the only kind of positive reaction as players that we can get out of that is to make sure that we perform well on Tuesday and Saturday and get two wins.
