Gareth Ainsworth acknowledged that this side were second best as Gillingham fell to a 3-0 defeat against York City on Saturday afternoon.
The hosts went ahead inside the opening 90 seconds, and the Gills managed to see out the first-half at 1-0 down. Zane Albarus' red card for a second bookable offence gave York a chance to go and secure the points, and they scored twice more to win the game.
Despite the defeat, Ainsworth is keen to remain grounded, knowing that there is an opportunity to get back on track against Newport County at MEMS Priestfield Stadium next Saturday.
The 53-year-old also discussed Will Goodwin and Eli King, who were both forced off due to injury.
On the defeat...
We are 1-0 at ten men, and I thought that we were in the game. Coming up here, teams are going to struggle. They're a very good form side at home, and we were hoping to nick something. We changed the shape to be more attacking because I thought that was the time that York had just turned on us a little bit, and we were getting a lot of pressure, so I changed the shape, and then we got a man sent off.
My best laid plans go to waste, as the saying goes. The boys tried, but away at York, with ten men on this big pitch and them in the ascendancy, it was always going to be tough. To be fair, the goals are not great goals for us. We conceded some bad goals there. There are a couple of fundamental errors in some of them. At the end of the day, we have to take it on the chin.
Remaining grounded and looking ahead...
I am so grounded. We have lost, but there are a few lessons learned... I have a young squad, and we have legs, but we need nous as well. For me, we were second best today. We have to get back, look through that, and put it right, but more importantly, put a good performance on against Newport at home because that is a game that we want to win.
Being reflective...
I apologise that we haven't given them anything to shout about [the supporters]. Obviously, we all do it with honesty and hard work. Nobody goes out there meaning to do anything negative. The players will learn. There are some young boys in that team at the end, and I think that there were one or two mistakes that were made for the goals and things like that. They will learn from that, and that is a positive.
I will have a look at myself and think, could I have done any better? I picked a team that got beat, so maybe picking a different team would have been the thing, but you don't expect the injuries and the sending off. That does hamper you somewhat.
On Eli King and Will Goodwin going off in the first half...
Losing Eli King and Will Goodwin again after 15 minutes is not good. For Eli, it is a twist with no one near him, and that can be concerning for somebody who has had a knee injury before. We will have a look at that. He was not on crutches and was walking over and clapping the fans, which is positive.
Will, we need to make sure that we keep this boy fit because the platform that we had up front just went.
