Gillingham were dumped out of the Carling Cup on Tuesday night at Norwich and manager Andy Hessenthaler pointed to his team’s defending as the number one reason.

Despite going ahead in the game the Gills conceded four goals after that against their Championship hosts and Hessenthaler knows it wasn’t good enough.

“If you are going to defend like that you are going get unstuck against sides like Norwich,” he said.

“The scoreline does flatter them but if you defend the way we defended then you are going to concede goals. I’m certainly disappointed the way we defended, not just individually but as a group.

“It’s easy to blame the back five but I think we could have all done better.”

Chris Palmer had put the Gills in front and they almost doubled the lead when Adebayo Akinfenwa hit the bar with a glancing header.

“If that goes in, maybe it’s a different story,” said a disappointed Hessenthaler.

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