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Manager Neil Harris has sympathy with Gillingham’s fans amid the club's struggles.
The Gills are badly out of form, particularly in League 2, and they are fighting for their Football League status.
Summing up his emotions after a weekend 3-0 home defeat to Salford, Harris said: “[I am] disappointed, dejected.
“Look, it’s my job at the football club to sit in front of you [the media] and answer the questions. I’m the one who has to come in and pick the players up again but it’s frustrating.
“I feel for the fans because they come in hope and belief, and see the first half and think ‘Oh, here we go, we’ve been really good’ but they see the second-half display and they must go home, like I do, and think what the hell has happened there?!
“I’ve got nearly eight years as a manager and have done 1,000 games as a player, manager and coach. When things like that happen, what can you do? So I’m frustrated, as you can tell.
“I don’t want to be critical of individual players, I don’t want to do that at all.
“But as a group, and I’m the leader of the group, we’re just dejected.”
It’s been just under a year in charge for Harris at Priestfield - and a tough one at that. Having last season been unable to get Gillingham out of the League 1 relegation zone, the club are at the wrong end in the fourth tier too.
Overall, they have netted only six league goals in 20 fixtures and have failed to hit the target in their last six league outings - the first time that's happened since 1961.
When asked if this was a low point in his managerial career, ex-Cardiff and Millwall boss Harris replied: “At the moment, yeah.
“It’s not just about looking at the results, it’s about looking at the group and thinking ‘Where’s the leadership in the group?’
“With the players we’ve brought in, where are the leaders? Why did we allow that to happen? Where’s the reaction on the pitch? Where’s the fight in the group?
“I want players to reflect me. That’s probably the worst thing [that he feels the group isn’t reflecting him].”
Against Salford, Gillingham had enjoyed the better of a goalless first half in front of a crowd of 3,853 but still couldn’t find a sorely-needed breakthrough which would have ended their league goal drought before second-half strikes by Theo Vassell, Ryan Watson and Callum Hendry earned the away side a 3-0 victory.
And Harris questioned if some of his players are able to maintain their first-half performance levels for a full game.
He said: “Everybody in the stadium saw the first half and saw how good it was. Then we’ve seen chalk and cheese, second half, so I’ll take the positives from the first half and take solace from that.
“Some players played well but I have questioned pre-match and post-match the ability of players to go past a 45-minute period. So many games we have done well for 45 minutes and just fallen short, have not been in front, and then ended up getting beaten. It was the same again on Saturday.
“I have to take responsibility as manager of the football club. But I do look at the group and think ‘How can they be that good for 45 minutes and then nowhere near it in the second half’ so have they got the capability of doing it?
“It goes back to levels - we are second-bottom for a reason - and also leadership. A lack of it.”
