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Gillingham’s management were disappointed that their players didn’t pay attention to the warnings as they were undone in the second half by Wigan.
Assistant boss Paul Raynor felt both goals could have been preventable.
Raynor said: “You can’t not track a runner, you cannot then lose a man on the far post, you get punished by good players and unfortunately that is what happened.
“We were on the front foot for 10 minutes in the second half but you don’t need to give a club like Wigan, with the quality they have got, a lift. Then they have something to hang onto, something to build.”
Gillingham had their moments in the match, with a couple of chances in the opening half and a good spell at the start of the second. But it was Wigan who went home with maximum points to return to the top of League 1.
Raynor said: “They are are always going to dominate possession to a large degree, that is how they play, but we thought we caused them problems. We didn’t reality cause them enough problems with the ball but at 0-0 they weren’t really creating too many chances.
“We gifted them the first goal, which is disappointing, and that gives them a lift and then the second is disappointing as well, where we didn’t track runners, we got done in the wide areas and for a right-back to be unchallenged at the far post in the six yard box is very disappointing, that is someone not doing their job, not tracking back.
“We had spoken at half-time about it, because of the shape we played we were always going to be a bit narrow at times and we would offer them space in the wide areas, and it was important we tracked their full-backs all the way in from our wide areas.
“We mentioned it at half-time. People didn’t heed it and we got punished for it, same as the second goal. That is the other side of the game. You can run forward and you create things but the reality is you have to run the other way and you have to defend as well and we didn’t do it on two occasions and we got punished. With the quality they have got in their side and on their bench you don’t need to give them opportunities to create chances because they take them.
“We did okay but we just didn’t do well enough against a top team in League 1. They just about deserved it on the day and that little bit of quality told but in terms of effort the guys gave us absolutely everything and it is fine margins.
“The reality of it is they were two poor goals. It was an okay performance against a particularly good side but you can’t offer up opportunities for them to take because they will punish you.”
