Gillingham’s play-off dream may have all-but ended but standards won’t slip, insists boss Steve Lovell.

A 2-1 defeat to MK Dons on Thursday leaves the Gills 11 points off the top six with eight games to go, a gap that even the most optimistic fan knows is unlikely to be bridged.

Lovell’s team have lost their last two, the first the Gills they have lost back to back games in League 1 since he took charge in mid-October.

Performances have been positive, however.

The Gills boss said: “The boys have done brilliant since October, they have been first class and they will continue to be like that until the end of the season, because I won’t allow it to be any other way.

“Sometimes you don’t get what you deserve.

“We haven’t lost many (six defeats in 26 for Lovell) and it is a horrible feeling, fortunately we haven’t had it too many times. We have to get back to that other kind of feeling on Monday (at Southend) and do that as many times as we can now until the end of the season, get back to that lovely feeling you get when you win games.

“I am still positive, we have eight games to go and I am looking forward to Monday.

“I said to the players (after Thursday’s game) that I enjoyed watching us play and when a manager enjoys watching their team play then there has to be something right.

“That game is gone and we look forward to Monday now.”

Read more in Monday's Medway Messenger newspaper.