Gills boss Peter Taylor admitted his team were second best on Saturday.

Taylor’s men lost a game which the Gills manager had labelled pre-match as one of the biggest of the season.

“The performance wasn’t good enough,” he said.

“I felt that Crewe, on the day, had more players on the pitch that were better than ours.

“I am very disappointed and there didn’t seem to be enough energy. I know there were a few things that maybe didn’t go our way and I am not convinced we deserved them to go our way.

“They started slightly better than us and I can’t really understand it because at eight minutes to three, when the boys are ready to go, they look as if they are going to start well but unfortunately it wasn’t to be.”

The Gills were behind after just four minutes but rallied in the second period of the first half, only to concede twice more in the second half.

Taylor said: “At half-time I am sure I was more confident (than Crewe) that we would go and nick a win, because of the way we finished the half. It was simply because we started to pass the ball a little bit better.

“In the early part of the game we didn’t and we played it long. People didn’t bring the ball down when they could. In the last 20 minutes of the half we did and we started to pass the ball.

“The boys, I think, were confident at half-time that we could go on and win but it wasn’t to be.”

The Gills went into the weekend with several players suffering from a bug in the camp.

Taylor felt Saturday’s performance lacked energy but that illness wasn’t to blame.

He said: “It was a little bit of a ‘lack of energy performance’ and that is what I was disappointed with but I don’t want to look at excuses.

“Charlie Lee was the worst (of those being ill) and there were a couple of others not feeling right. Gregory (who missed out last week through illness) to me looked okay, although he didn’t look lively, but I don’t want to use that as an excuse.”