By Luke Cawdell

Gillingham manager Mark Stimson rued the state of the Stockport pitch after it stopped his most creative players in their tracks.

Stimson, pictured, said: "It’s not a football pitch unfortunately and that is never going to attract perfect football.

"They share it with the rugby club and it’s a hard one. Do the league come down, look at it and say ‘can they go and play somewhere else?’ but that wouldn’t be fair on the supporters.

"I’m sure it’s something the club will look at in the summer and a decision will be made. It doesn’t help the football because there were some good individual footballers out there."

It meant the Gillingham players had to adapt quickly and Stimson added: "Our two centre halves didn’t mess around much with the ball and only once Garry Richards passed it back to (goalkeeper) Alan Julian and they got caught up on it because it bobbled.

"There were hardly any other back passes and that was important."