by Luke Cawdell

Gillingham manager Andy Hessenthaler believed his side deserved to lose Saturday’s match with Shrewsbury.

Hessenthaler (pictured) expressed his disappointment at losing the game late-on but felt his side could have few complaints about the final outcome.

“I think they (Shrewsbury) deserved to win,” said the Gills boss.

“I'm maybe being too critical about my own team but I think over the 90 minutes they were the better team.

“We were too loose and we got what we deserved.”

The game ultimately hinged on two penalties. Gillingham missed one in the first half while Shrewsbury scored from the spot in injury-time.

“We are disappointed we missed the penalty and maybe that could have been a turning point but we have to do better than we did.

“The players were told that after the game and we are really disappointed. It hurts losing the goal at the end and Ross (Flitney) has come in and apologised (after conceding the penalty) but to be fair to him if it hadn’t been for him the scoreline could have been a lot more.

“Their penalty came from us giving the ball away in midfield and they broke off us.

"At times we were too deep as a group and we weren’t compact enough and for a game at home, I thought the game as a whole was too stretched.

“We are devastated that we conceded so late on but I think as a group we weren’t at it. We talked at half-time about improving and we had the disruption of losing Jack (Payne) in midfield with a medial problem in his knee. We readjusted but we didn’t pass the ball well enough.

“We were sloppy and you need to make things happen rather than wait for things to happen.

“We have worked all week on options and moving the ball and we didn’t do what we talked about.”

Despite now suffering back-to-back defeats the Gills remain well placed – just three points off the top of League 2.

“We are not going to get carried away,” Hessenthaler said.

“It’s too early really to look at league tables but we are three points off the top and that is what frustrates us even more, we could be a lot better.

"We need to get better if we are to do what we set out at the start of the season.”

What do you make of Hessenthaler's assessment? Have your say below.