Oldham Athletic 2 - 0 Gillingham

GILLINGHAM manager Ronnie Jepson hit out at his side’s lack of quality up front after their third successive blank on the road.

Two late goals from substitute Luke Beckett condemned the Gills to a 2-0 defeat at Oldham in Coca-Cola League 1 on Saturday.

And despite an up-turn in performances there seems no end in sight for that run as Gills’ strikers once again failed to take maximum spoils away from Priestfield.

Jepson said: "I thought the game was there for the taking. We just lacked that bit of quality in the final third again. We had enough of the ball but we didn’t hurt them. A point here today with the problems we’ve got would have been a good point. But we switched off at the end."

With Jepson’s attacking options limited, he was forced to play defender Chris Hope as a make-shift striker towards the end of the game, a move that underlined the differences between the two teams on Saturday.

Jepson said: "Paul Shields pulled out injured, Darren Byfield was suspended and Matty Jarvis is out, and that doesn’t help us. When they’ve got Luke Beckett on the bench and then the David Eyres and Chris Hall as well it strengthens their hand a little bit.

"I’ve got Chris Hope on my bench to throw on at the end and that shows where we are at this moment in time. We’ll get a few back from injury, maybe bring one or two in and hopefully that will improve us.

"We missed Darren Byfield, I think he would have caused them problems because he’s got quick feet and his movement would have been good."

Jepson has taken just a single point from five away outings as Gills boss and he admits their current away form is disheartening.

"It’s frustrating, when you’re not naming the same team week in, week out," he added.

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