Gareth Ainsworth is frustrated with how recurring mistakes continue to hamper Gillingham following their 4-1 defeat to Grimsby Town.
The Gills boss reiterated the need for his team to learn from their mistakes and will continue to try and address them during the week, as he calls for improvement. Ainsworth also acknowledged the poor defensive record of late and the need for the team to rediscover the defensive steel that they had during the earlier stages of the season.
Richard Dobson became the Football Club's Technical Director this week, and Ainsworth was delighted for his long-term assistant as he looks forward to working with him in a different capacity heading into an important summer.
Andy Smith and Robbie McKenzie both missed the game, and the Gillingham manager provided an update on their injuries.
Needing to be better and learning from mistakes...
We do need to learn from our mistakes today. The boys will be in watching the video, and I will be saying, again, very similar messages. It is another set piece. We have been very weak on set-piece defending this year, and we have to improve on that. There are three or four things that we need to bring up, and they keep recurring, and that is the problem.
We aren't being torn apart by teams. We just collapse, and that was unacceptable. I have said that too many times this season.
Honestly, from about October time, we have not been good enough. We probably drew too many games that we should have won, from October to sort of January time, and then since sort of January and February time, we have been on a downturn.
It seems so easy to score against us. That's something tough, and something that we have got to pride ourselves on because we're not scoring five goals. We can concede four, but we're only scoring ones and twos, so we need to keep clean sheets. We need to keep a minimum score to the opposition, but there are things to work on next year.
On Richard Dobson becoming Technical Director...
I think the club has been crying out for somebody to be organised and have experience of this role, and I think that Richard has got so much experience in the academy system when he was doing that before he became my assistant. He produced some really good players at Wycombe Wanderers.
He is in-depth, he is detailed, and he thinks the same as me. We are always together. I don't think that there is going to be too much of a change on that side of things, but I think that the club will gain a lot of experience with the academy.
Not just the academy, but right down to the grassroots and everything. Richard will be in charge of the long-term technical planning of everything, while I will be in charge of the day-to-day football. They both intertwine, but it is a great job for him, and I am pleased for him.
On the absence of Robbie McKenzie and Andy Smith...
[On Robbie McKenzie]- It is not a recurrence; it's a tweak on his ankle. He got it in front of the dugouts at Cheltenham on Tuesday night, as he flew into a tackle, so that is tough to take. Robbie McKenzie would play through most things, but I think the physios are saying, 'Robbie, you can't play through this one. We can't get it going into a bigger grade and out all summer.'
He needs to be fit for pre-season. Will he feature in the next couple of games? Maybe.
Andy Smith, as well, he is talking with a very blocked nasal area now. He broke his nose and got it reset. I don't know whether the medical team will release him for next week, but we will have to see.
