Gillingham boss Steve Lovell praised his side’s gutsy showing at Coventry.

His side left it late at the Ricoh Arena, with Tom Eaves levelling the scores from the penalty spot in stoppage-time.

The Gills manager felt it was the least they deserved.

Report: Coventry City 1 Gillingham 1

Speaking after the 1-1 draw, Lovell said: “I was pleased because I thought it was what we deserved.

“It was disappointing to have gone 1-0 down because we had a lot of chances in the first half and a couple in the second but when they score that goal it’s a backward step.

“We changed it (late on) and went to three at the back, we had a go, we put Billy (King) and Leo (Da Silva Lopes) on and thought we would have a go.

“We deservedly got the penalty and I thought Brandon Hanlan (who was fouled by the home keeper) was a handful all match. He deservedly got the penalty and Tom tucked it away.

“It was a very pleasing and gutsy 1-1 performance on a really awful pitch.”

The Ricoh pitch is used for rugby union as well as football and a bobbly surface led to both teams making errors.

Lovell said: “If you put them under pressure and press them they will make mistakes. We did that very well early on in the game.

“We had a couple of opportunities early, Graham Burke and Tom Eaves could have scored, Elliott List and Brandon Hanlan were causing havoc on the wings and the midfield worked really hard

“The first half, without scoring a couple of goals, was a great half and they were going to have a go, which they did. They had a couple of opportunities where they countered on us and their goal came from us having the ball up on the right hand side.”

The Gills were a goal down after conceding on the break.

“We were left two versus two at the back and we should have had it covered,” said the manager.

“It took a deflection on the way in and I think Connor Ogilvie tried to get it off the line.

“We rolled our sleeves up, like we always do, we kept going and we got our deserved point.”