MANAGER Andy Hessenthaler defiantly insisted that Gillingham are still punching above their weight in Division 1 despite Saturday's third consecutive league defeat away to leaders Wolves.

Since their last win against Coventry on February 2, Gillingham have conceded 14 league and cup goals in a decline that has seen the club slip to 15th. Hessenthaler, however, remained upbeat at Molineux.

He said: "Bearing in mind what we've spent this season, which is £50,000, we're punching well above our weight. Now we've got to dig in with what we've got and get those three points which will take us to 50 and safety. At the moment we're stuck on 47 but we're still ahead of last season which means we're making progress.

"We're having a bad spell, like all teams do, but we've got the strength of character to pull through." But he stressed that Gillingham could not go on giving teams a head start, as they had against Bradford City, Rotherham and Wolves.

"We've done this over the last three games and we must cut it out. You certainly can't give a team like Wolves a head start.

"Vince has held up his hand for the first goal but I wasn't happy about either goal. We've got to stop conceding sloppy goals.

"I thought we had got over this but the problem has returned. Though we improved in the second half, it was too late to rescue the game. I would think that Wolves will go on and win the title with Manchester City finishing second."

Gillingham were hit by the loss of striker Iffy Onuora before Saturday's match when his seriously ill mother took a turn for the worse on Thursday and the striker was given permission to withdraw from the squad.

David Perpetuini was a surprise exclusion, losing the left-back role to Roland Edge who made an impressive return from injury to break back into the side for the first time since October 20.

"David has looked tired over the last few weeks so we decided to give him a rest," Hessenthaler explained. "I thought Roland did well against Shaun Newton and Mark Kennedy, when he switched wings."

Wolves manager Dave Jones disclosed that Gillingham had felt the backlash of his club's 1-0 FA Cup, third round defeat in January. He admitted: "We were sloppy and lazy against Gillingham that day and deserved that defeat.

"People were suggesting afterwards that we weren't interested in the FA Cup and that the league was all that mattered. Nothing could be further from the truth.

"I love the FA Cup and that defeat hurt me. It will go on hurting me until our next win in the Cup when I can get it out of my system. The manner of that defeat helped in my team-talk today because I wanted no more repeats against Gillingham."

Centre-back Chris Hope's dream of making 100 consecutive Gillingham appearances has been dashed by Saturday's caution which rules him out of the home game against Nottingham Forest on March 16. Fellow central defender Barry Ashby will also miss the game after being booked on Saturday.