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Gillingham boss Neil Harris admitted Northampton had the quality up top that his team continue to lack.
The Gills are third bottom of League 2 and a paltry six goals have come from their opening 17 fixtures. A 2-0 defeat to Northampton Town was another blow as his team failed to take the few chances that they did create.
“They have got better players then us, simple as that,” said the beaten boss. “Sam Hoskins was the difference, a great first goal, we gave him a leg up, we passed the ball straight to him, but he sticks the ball into the top corner from 20 yards.
“We miss from six yards at one end and they go down the other end and put it in the net, ultimately that is the difference, I have got no complaints.
“We get punished for shooting ourselves in the foot, we are not clinical enough at the other end.
“When you have better players they make the difference from those fine margins, we gave the ball away for the first goal and it ends up in the top corner, it is simple. Did the lads try? Yeah, no lack of effort.
“I looked back at the clips and nine times we got into their final third in the first half and didn’t make a chance, it’s just not good enough, that is where we are, what we’ve got.
“We keep working with them but when we get into that final third we have got to be clever enough to play one versus one, two v two, three v two, make good runs, be better with the ball, better quality into the box. Ultimately Northampton probably got into four good areas and scored two good goals, we got into 12-15 and didn’t score.
“It is frustrating, but that doesn’t half sum it up really. I know the fans are frustrated and I appreciate them sticking with the team for the 90 minutes, all we can promise is that we keep working, keep trying to be better in the final third and just get some support in January when we get a chance to rebuild.”
Harris switched things around at the break, taking the ineffective Hakeeb Adelakun off and switching from 4-5-1 to 4-4-2, with striker Lewis Walker introduced.
Jordan Green fired a good chance wide at 1-0 down and Walker then had a golden opportunity from close range, which he put out of play. Five minutes after that miss Northampton netted a second and it was game-over.
Harris said: “I didn’t think Hakeeb performed well enough in the final third, the effort was there, we got him in really good areas with the ball and he didn’t produce what I needed him to, chances or goals.
“I just thought putting another centre-forward on might just give us more of a threat, being a pair upfront (with Walker partnering Mandron). We were better at building with the ball first half but second half we were more direct and got into good areas as well, it is sometimes you roll the dice and I went with two up top second half.
“At 2-0 down it sucked the life and energy out of the stadium. Was the team going to score two goals? We haven’t scored enough goals (all season) so it didn’t look like we would score two, you could see the players dropping in confidence as well.”
