More on KentOnline
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Manager Steve Evans felt some of his Gillingham players didn’t put in the required amount of effort against Northampton and the team paid the price.
He was also frustrated at the goals conceded, labelling them horrific.
Gillingham’s 3-1 defeat to Northampton came off the back of a 4-1 win over Rochdale.
“It was seriously not good enough,” he said, as the team looked far from the one that won so convincingly last time out.
“You have to have 11 players on the pitch working so hard to be able to win a game and some let us down, that is the biggest crime in football. The biggest crime is not missing a chance, a header or giving a sloppy goal away, it is not applying the effort to work so hard that you are working harder than your opponent. They worked harder than us in some areas.
“You have to turn up and fight and earn everything you get, we didn’t turn up and fight hard enough.
“You break down the three goals and they are horrific aren't they?”
The Cobblers went a goal ahead from the penalty spot following a Connor Ogilvie foul. Evans had no complaints about the decision.
He said: “We had the ascendency and were starting to get a grip of the game and then we commit an absolutely terrible penalty, there was no reason to make a challenge and it was a penalty for me even though we were [watching] a long way away.
“We conceded again quickly and defensively we looked all over the place.
“A good free-kick from Kyle gave us a lifeline at half-time but you can’t concede the first minute of the second half with a goal like that."
A free-kick played into the box missed everyone and crept into the far corner to put Town 3-1 up early in the second half.
Evans continued: “That made it difficult against a team who fought really well for Keith [Curle, the Northampton boss]. They gave everything but my job is to focus on us and we were way short, simple as that.”
Evans wasn’t using the pitch as an excuse but he wasn’t happy with it.
“That pitch is not fit to play a league game on.” he said.
“It’s not an excuse but it was poor and the far side is like quicksand so the players tell me.
“But we’ve been beaten and we will live with it.”
The Gills manager added: “The third goal summed up our evening. I am not here to make excuses, I am here to say it was a disturbing performance.”
