Boss Steve Lovell blasted the ‘joke’ decisions that are being made against his Gillingham team.

Lovell’s men were beaten 1-0 at Oxford on Saturday, the winner coming from the penalty spot.

While the penalty was a decision that rankled with the Gills boss, he was also incensed at the continuing rough justice meted out to his leading scorer Tom Eaves.

“The way he (Eaves) gets treated on the football field is absolutely ridiculous,” said Lovell, particularly annoyed at one decision to award a foul against Eaves despite getting manhandled by an Oxford defender in the box.

“He doesn’t get anything. Tom gets pulled around and the fella nearly had his shirt off. It’s an absolute joke and it happens every week.

“Tom is playing as a centre-forward and like we tell him to, he is holding people off and trying to hold the ball up. But he is getting pulled and pushed and more often than not he doesn’t get anything.

“He is a great lad, it would be so easy for him to get frustrated and lose his head but he keeps going and I feel sorry for him.

“Something has to happen because every week is the same. (Saturday) was worse than ever, two or three times in the box we could have had penalties. If theirs is a penalty then we should have had two or three, easy, all day long.”

The penalty won the game for Oxford but Lovell felt it was harshly awarded.

Lovell said: “Tomas Holy (the Gills keeper) has come out and stood his ground and their fella has actually run into him.

“Tom hasn’t taken him out, he has stood his ground and he has bought the penalty.

“You could say that’s clever, that’s the way it happens, but Tomas didn’t actually kick him or bring him down, the forward ran into him.”

The Gills had already seen a goal from Regan Charles-Cook ruled out for offside.

“I had a look and he wasn’t offside,” added Lovell.

“It was tight but sometimes you get them, when things aren’t going your way you don’t get them. That was a perfectly good goal that we don’t get.”