Tranmere 2 Gillingham 0

GILLINGHAM suffered their second away defeat in four days at Tranmere on Tuesday night.

The Gills had it all to do after a terrible start in which the home side led 2-0 after just 14 minutes.

Slack defending let in Paul McLaren to strike home the first and minutes later Gavin Zola fired in from the edge of the box.

Gillingham barely threatened in the opening 45 minutes as the home side dominated.

The Gills had more chances after the break but nothing to trouble Tranmere ? who comfortably took all three points.

Gills boss Mark Stimson reflected on the two early goals which cost his team dearly.

He said: "We came to Tranmere with a couple of new faces in the team and the squad, to try and freshen things up, but unfortunately that didn't work and we got undone by a poor first goal.

"We didn't switch on at the corner and the boy took the ball in the box and hit a sweet strike after just a few minutes.

"We were then in an uphill battle straight away and the for the rest of the first half we never really got on the ball or threatened enough.

"For the second goal, one of our players has probably come out of his position to help out and, because he's maybe young and enthusiastic, the lad did the wrong thing.

"If he had kept his position he wouldn't have been there to lose the ball. Their guy nicked it off him and scored a corker from 20 yards."

~ More pictures from Prenton Park >>>

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Gillingham: Royce, Fuller, Nutter, Crofts, King, Richards, Miller, Thurgood (Lewis 73mins), Cumbers (Griffiths 53mins), Mulligan, Cogan (Bygrave 73mins).

Subs Not Used: Stillie, Howard.

Attendance: 5,006.
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