MANAGER Andy Hessenthaler refused to heap blame on striker Rod Wallace after Gillingham slipped to a fourth straight league defeat with Saturday's 1-0 reverse away to leaders Wigan.

The former Southampton, Leeds and Glasgow Rangers striker missed two golden opportunities that condemned Gillingham to a defeat they never deserved on an afternoon when they more than matched the leaders.

"You would have banked on the wee man Rod Wallace scoring, certainly the second of the chances that came to him, to make it 1-1," said Hessenthaler. "But that's the way it's been going in the last two games because the performances have been good, we've just not been getting the goals.

"I didn't go in afterwards and have a go at Rod because you have days like that, in training and in games. You have spells when you miss chances, but you would have banked on Rod taking one of the two that came to him even both of them."

The Gills boss admitted he still had to be convinced that Wigan's match-winning penalty was justified.

"I would like to see it again because it looked a little bit harsh," he said. "Paul Smith said it was shoulder to shoulder. Wigan are top of the table and we deserved something from them.

"That's two games in five days we've lost when we didn't deserve to because on Tuesday we looked the better side at Reading over the 90 minutes."

Wayne Brown, who was among Saturday's substitutes, returned afterwards to Watford at the end of his month's loan. Striker Trevor Benjamin, signed on a month's loan from Leicester, returned early to the Walkers Stadium last week.

Hessenthaler made one change to the side beaten at Reading with Nicky Southall replacing Mark Saunders who had been given special dispensation to be with his wife at the birth of their second child, a son born in the early hours of Friday morning.