Boss Steve Lovell wants Gillingham to start another unbeaten run after Wigan defeat
Published: 07:40, 05 February 2018
Gillingham boss Steve Lovell won’t be hitting the panic button after one defeat.
Table-topping Wigan showed their class to beat Gills 2-0 on Saturday and end the club’s eight-game unbeaten run in League 1.
Lovell said: “We have lost the game to most probably the champions of the league, so it’s no hardship.
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“Nothing will change, it’s one defeat. We will carry on and start another run next week.
“You want to keep (the run) going but we played against a very good side and acquitted ourselves very well, especially second half. We will take the positives into next Saturday.
“Just because we lost the game I am not going to make five or six changes.
“We have had a really good run with the boys who are out there and they will continue to do so, there wasn’t much wrong. We will be all right.”
Gillingham started the day seven points outside the play-off positions but defeats for the likes of Charlton, Bradford and Peterborough – next weekend’s visitors – mean they are only a point further adrift after the weekend.
The Gills are also eight points outside the bottom four.
“I am still looking for 50-51 points,” said Lovell, who remains focused on survival-first. "We have played against a team who I think will be champions this year, they are the best side we’ve played by far. We did okay, we weren’t hammered by them.
“I am just disappointed because prior to the game I thought we might get something. Had we performed like we have done in those other four or five games away from home then we would have done.
“Next week we will probably be back to normal, I am not going to go around and do this and that in training. I will just do exactly the same as we have been doing.
“There were boys who didn’t pass the ball as they can do. They didn’t do it as quickly as they can and that is down to the opposition being very bright, very quickly onto us.
“Our boys who have been playing really well with the ball didn’t have time to do it, that is what pressing is all about, they (Wigan) do it very well. It was most probably the best we have played against."
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Luke Cawdell