Gillingham boss Steve Evans described how his team gave Sunderland a battering on Saturday but came away with nothing.

The League 1 big-boys came back from a goal down at Priestfield to win 2-1, surviving a late onslaught with 10 men against the Gills.

“Sunderland got battered,” said the Gills manager. “We made the best chances, played the best football, but got beat.

“At time-up their gaffer said to me ‘we got away with that’ and there were Sunderland fans saying the same to me. We dominated from start to finish.

“They had the odd counter-attack and ball into our box but the two goals we gave away were disappointing, two easy crosses.

“I need to look back at it to see if Max (Ehmer) has done anything wrong or not but it looks like it is a big error, I need to look, the second he (the Sunderland player) has a lot of time on the ball to pick his cross, he crosses it and he (Tom Flanagan) is a towering centre back, he is going to get above Ryan Jackson but I probably think we defended too deep.

“They have rode their luck, they have had blocks, they have had it off the line, they have had a penalty on John Akinde not given.

“We should be winning it, it would have been our most comfortable win all season, but we didn’t take our chances and we conceded two sloppy goals.

“We couldn’t have given any more in terms of effort, the group has given everything they have got and you can see the difference it makes with two half-fit players coming back. We had to gamble with Jacko and gamble with Mustapha (Carayol) but you can see when that type of team plays we are not a bad side.

“They will never get a battering like that again all season and go away with the points.

“The boys have been good and the best team has got beaten. The best team, by a long way, got beat.

“I have been there, I have been a manager in charge of teams that have been second best all day and won a game, you take it, because that is what good teams do and they are a really good team and with a good manager. That is what they do, they find a way to win. “They blocked things and got some decisions in their favour.”

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