Martin Allen will be hoping his team take valuable lessons from Tuesday night’s late defeat to Ipswich.

The Championship team won the match with an injury-time strike.

“The goal at the end did take the shine off it and I don’t think that was a fair reflection of the way the game was,” said Gills boss Allen.

“I was just disappointed for the lads who were on for those final 20 minutes. They ran themselves into the ground and it was a big night for them to play in such a game for the first team. It was good to see some of our younger players out there.

“I don’t think we deserved to lose the game and we have to learn because we did have a few slips last year, lastminute dot com, and so as coaches, managers and players of course perhaps that’s a good reminder as we don’t want that to happen again.”

Despite that goal, it was a pleasing night for Allen.

“I thought it was a great game and we played really well,” he said.

“We had some good possession in the first half and I think they had one little melee of chances, where Stuart Nelson made some good saves and they showed a bit of quality to score from their free-kick.

“I thought overall in the first half we played very well. We changed a little bit in the second half, played a bit of a different way, which created a lot of pressure and we scored a great goal. We were then looking for the winner and I was delighted with all of them.”

After previous pre-season games against Faversham, Ashford United and Bromley, it was a big step up in quality for the Gills.

But Allen said: “I have to be honest, I don’t view Ipswich as having a team of real quality. I don’t mean that in any disrespect to Mick McCarthy (Ipswich manager) or their players or supporters. For me, personally, I believe our players are quality.

“For me we are better than them without a shadow of a doubt.”

The Gills were missing Charlie Allen (hip) and Myles Weston (hamstring), while new signing Amine Linganzi was given time off to see his family.

Allen said: “He (Amine) has been away from his family for a few weeks and was allowed a couple of extra days off.” He is back in training on Wednesday and available for Saturday’s game against Millwall.