by Luke Cawdell

Gillingham’s second half performance wasn’t up to scratch, conceded boss Andy Hessenthaler after losing 3-0 at Rotherham on Saturday.

The Gills went from being competitive in the first half to capitulating in the second.

“I can’t believe the result but we deserved to lose on the second half performance,” said Hessenthaler (pictured).

“First half we looked comfortable without creating a lot of chances. The keeper made a save from Kedwell when he got in, but our final ball probably let us down a bit.”

Rotherham’s opener originated from a disputed throw and when that went in the game rapidly went downhill for the Gills. An unwell Jack Payne was substituted and that gave the hosts the room to engineer two more goals.

“Goals change games and so do decisions,” the Gills boss said. “It was clearly our throw and I could see from the other side that Frampton slid in and it came off their fella for our throw. How the linesman can give it to them I don’t know and I can’t work it out.

“But saying that, we can’t rely on the officials, we should defend it better. We didn’t perform from there on.

“We looked a poor side after conceding and we ran out of ideas. It gave them the confidence and the impetus and we ended up losing the game.

"We are disappointed but we can’t be too critical. We are going to lose games, but the way we lost it in the second half was the biggest thing,”

After conceding the first goal Hessenthaler felt it best to take off Payne and bring on Dennis Oli to give them more going forward. It was a move he accepts didn’t work.

Hessenthaler said: “He (Payne) was doing well but he did come in at half-time and he was quite poorly, he felt sick and we had to keep an eye on him.

“Once we went a goal down you are chasing the game and we went for another striker. That affected us the other way because Jack sits in there and breaks things up and we ended up conceding again. You live and learn.

“We gave Kedwell a partner with Dennis and we actually got worse.”

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