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It was a comfortable night’s work for Gillingham on Wednesday said assistant boss Paul Raynor.
They beat Shrewsbury 2-0 at Priestfield, thanks to first half goals from Stuart O’Keefe and Olly Lee, leaving the Gills are now 10 games unbeaten in League 1.
Report: Gillingham 2 Shrewsbury 0
“We’re delighted to extend the run,” said Gills’ no.2.
“I thought it was quite comfortable. It was quite a scrappy opening 10-20 minutes but as soon as we got the first goal it seemed to settle us down and then we doubled the lead.
“We defended well, with everything they threw at us, they threw centre halves upfront, they put the boy Cummings on who we know very well. He is a good goalscorer, they tried allsorts to get into the game.
"But we were back to our solid shape, our good defensive qualities, which we didn’t have at Rochdale (at the weekend).
“Before the game we drummed into our boys about getting back to that solid structure where we don’t concede sloppy goals and we did that. They had one shot on target in the whole game, which says a lot, and a comfortable 2-0 victory.
“Shrewsbury have some good players but I thought we nullified that threat tremendously well. There will be some bangs and bruises but when you get three points they don’t feel quite as bad.”
Boss Steve Evans added: “We were a notch down at Rochdale (on Saturday) and I told the player that quite clearly after the game and on Monday.
“We trained well on Tuesday and worked on a particular shape and the way we wanted to play and they carried it out to a man.
"We were outstanding in spells and on another day, I am not going to say barring some poor officiating, but some strange decisions , we would win more comfortably.”
Visiting boss Sam Ricketts wasn’t happy.
From the buzz of drawing 2-2 with Liverpool on Sunday, his team couldn’t cope with the cut and thrust of League 1 football at Priestfield.
He said: “We went from the Sunday, which was a real football game, to a rugby game to be fair. We weren’t built for it.
“The pitch didn’t allow us to pass the ball. It descended into a rugby game and ended with me putting Omar Beckles (one of their centre-backs) upfront because we couldn’t get the game flowing at all.
“When we did put passages of play together we pinned Gillingham in but ultimately I am disappointed we couldn't play our game.
“We could have handled better. It wasn't a game of football and I felt sorry for anyone who paid to watch the game.
“It was a bitty, scrappy, a horrible game of football and if someone pays to watch that every week you wouldn’t enjoy it. Sunday was football, this was rugby.”
