Justin Edinburgh wasn’t happy seeing his Gillingham team drop more home points but he praised their fighting spirit.

They twice came from behind to earn a draw against Colchester at Priestfield on Saturday with captain Doug Loft’s equaliser to make it 2-2 coming in the sixth minute of injury time.

“You can’t knock that fighting spirit and I think the crowd were so delighted and sucked the ball in at the end,” said Gills boss Edinburgh.

“This is what the group are about. They are young, a little naive at times but they have big hearts and they are big lions, like cubs at times, but mostly they are like lions.

“Hunger is something you can’t give people and we have that in the group.

“They deserved that at the end and it would have been harsh had we come away with nothing.

“There always has to be a positive. We know we have a good spirit, good belief and the players will go to the end.”

Saturday’s result was, however, another where the Gills lost ground on those teams challenging for the League 1 play-offs and Edinburgh rued another opportunity missed at home.

“More than anything it has been the draws here and the defeat,” he said, as the Gills picked up only their second point from a possible nine in their last three home games.

“We had a great first couple of games here, Sheffield United and then MK Dons, but for whatever reason we haven’t been able to find that performance at home in the last three.

“Hopefully with that late goal it might reignite it and get back to what we like doing here, which is winning football matches.

“(The play-offs) was going to be a tall order but if we were going to get there we needed to have probably taken two wins and a draw out of (those three games).

“We have had two draws and a loss and that has hurt us. If you are going to do as well as we have done away, you need to be backing it up with home victories.”

More news and reaction from the weekend in the Medway Messenger newspaper.