More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
Gillingham manager Steve Evans felt for his players after conceding a late equaliser against Burton on Saturday.
Evans blamed individual errors from his players for dropping points from winning positions on their previous two weekends, against Oxford and Northampton, but it wasn’t the players he was blaming this time around as they let slip another lead.
Evans said: “I must have run over a black cat and his name was Saturday a few weeks ago!
“There can be no other reason why we conceded the way we did at Oxford (losing 3-2 after leading 2-0) and then Northampton at home (drawing 2-2 after leading 2-0).
“I felt for the boys, it wasn’t even a corner (from which the goal originated), it was a free-kick on Jack Tucker, a clear free-kick.
“The performance was good, particular first half, we started the game well and we could have been two or three ahead. Second half we freshened the front two up to give us some energy, but they get a break from the referee giving a poor decision.
“We have to defend the corner of course, it was O’Keefe’s man, he blocks him but but it ricochets to him (the Burton goalscorer) and Stuart can’t react to that, it was a good finish and we have to take the hurt from that.
“We have had three weekends like that, going home feeling awful, there was very little on the game but from our point of view they were three points we really wanted to win and we gave them away again.
“My players looked devastated coming off at the end, like they have been smacked across the head with a baseball bat, they don’t deserve it.
“My boys have been severely punished over the last three Saturdays. I don’t often come away with statements saying I feel for footballers but I do. We were fantastic at Oxford for 80-95% of the game, fantastic, we made a good side look poor.
"We were absolutely brilliant in spells for the first period against Northampton but in those two games we didn’t do out job, we did our jobs against Burton, we were up against a difficult team, in great form under Jimmy, who have won a lot of games but at no stage did they look like winning, we looked like winning comfortably.
“I am just disappointed that a poor decision has given them an opportunity to win a corner. I think there was an initial foul on Jack Tucker leading up to the corner. Then when John Akinde clears the header he gets barged and I thought that was a foul, then they get a bit lucky and then they get a strike, O’Keefe gets a good block but it falls to him (Ryan Broom) and he puts it into the corner.
“This time it was not individual errors other than the referee giving a corner, that is the only individual error, Oxford and Northampton was a different reason. If the referee does his job properly then they don’t get the corner that leads to the goal. We are disappointed, there is no other word.”
