GILLINGHAM'S assistant manager Wayne Jones warned his players that nothing less than a win against Brighton on Saturday will suffice after a nightmare seven days for the club.

Last weekend they were thrashed 4-0 at home to Sunderland and on Saturday they were beaten 3-1 at Reading, making it five defeats in their last seven games.

But Jones believes the side can take heart from the way they fought back from 2-0 down to earn a point in the mid-week game at Coventry, and how they responded in the second-half at the Madejski Stadium.

He said: “We didn’t do well in the first-half against Reading. It’s a long way back from 3-0 down, but the way we started Reading could have had seven or eight goals. We didn’t stop the cross coming over in the first minute and we didn’t get near (Dave) Kitson.

“We just didn’t play anywhere near the way we did at Coventry and we had wanted to build on that, but it’s back to the drawing board again.

“We were a bit better in the second-half and if Patrick Agyemang’s shot had gone in rather than hitting the post with 20 minutes to go, then that would have made it 3-2 and you never know what might have happened.

“We’ve got Brighton on Saturday and that’s like a local derby for us. We need to show character for that game. Nothing less than three points will do.”

Jones said that too many players had underperformed in Saturday’s game, suggesting that Chris Hope and Ian Cox failed to deal with Reading strikers Dave Kitson and Nicky Forster.

“We are missing Barry Ashby a lot. Our senior centre halves didn’t play well. They know that and they realise they were second-best with a lot of what they had to cope with,” said Jones.

“But Steve Banks played well again. Despite conceding nine in the last three games he’s been our best player, which doesn’t say much for the rest of the team.”

Gillingham now have two home matches to try and put things right, against the Seagulls on Saturday and Leicester next Tuesday night.