Adebayo Akinfenwa in the thick of the action against Southend. Gillingham missed the striker when he went off, according to manager Andy Hessenthaler Picture: Barry Goodwin

by Luke Cawdell

Gillingham manager Andy Hessenthaler was disappointed with the way his side let their half-time advantage slip in a 2-2 draw at Southend United.

Goals from Cody McDonald and Adebayo Akinfenwa had put them in the driving seat by the interval, with a 2-1 lead, but in the end had to settle for just a single point.

“I’m disappointed and we have to do better,” said a frustrated Hessenthaler. “We put ourselves into a winning position and we really should have gone on and won the game.

“There were two teams out there trying to win a football match, but I felt the game was a little bit too loose.”

It was Gillingham's seventh draw in nine League 2 matches.

Hessenthaler was forced into making a switch at the break as Akinfenwa was feeling ill and the Gills boss felt they missed his presence.

“He (Akinfenwa) said he couldn’t go out in the second half and we needed to make that change,” said the Gills boss.

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“We started the second half quite well but we didn’t work the ball particularly well and we perhaps missed the big man because he does win the ball up there for us and he does bring people into play.

“That’s not being disrespectful to Dennis Oli (Akinfenwa’s replacement) but he has been out for a long time. We didn’t really do what I asked at half-time.

“We lost the ball in the middle of the park for the second goal and got punished by the lad (Ryan Hall) who had a fantastic game, but we could have done a lot better in the second half.”

Was it a point gained for the Gills or two dropped? Leave you comments below.