Manager Mark Bonner has reacted to their defeat against Bromley on Thursday night.

A 3-0 loss for Gillingham leaves them 14th in the League 2 table as they kicked off 2025 with a miserable night at Priestfield Stadium.

Report: Gills 0 Bromley 3

“The first half was horrible,” said Bonner, having seen his side concede twice early on.

“Twenty minutes in the second half we were okay, but didn't do enough with it.

“Once they score the third goal (on 74 minutes) it's a bit of a dead duck really and it turns into a horrible night.

“You can't be that team in the first half, or that easy to score and create a chance against and that lacking. I just think all of our flaws have been ruthlessly exposed again.”

Bonner had made six changes to his starting eleven for the match but made three more at the break to get them going.

There was an improvement, but trailing 2-0 they were always chasing the game, and a goal never came. It’s now three games in a row without a goal.

Bonner said: “The 20 minutes after half-time is a little bit more in line with the sort of team I want to see on the pitch and I want to be the manager of, and having those capabilities and that as a base level, but we haven't seen enough of that through the season really.

“We haven't seen enough of that often enough and so we have to find a way of getting the best players and the most athletic players and the most energetic players on the pitch together as often as possible and trying to change the dynamic continually so that we can be that more often.”

Things didn’t start well for the Gills when recalled striker Josh Andrews picked up a head injury after 30 seconds. The hosts were playing with 10 men in the early stages as he was treated off the pitch.

Bonner said: “He had a stitch in (the head injury) at half-time and managed to come back out for the second half.

“Obviously it disjoints you a little bit, you then have to slow the game and waste some time so it takes all the momentum out of the game really.”

With 11 men, the first half still wasn’t anywhere near good enough for Gillingham.

Louis Dennis opened the scoring after seven minutes and Jude Arthurs scored another on 26. Kamarl Grant put it beyond doubt with a third and the Gills couldn’t even score from the penalty spot when Elliott Nevitt blasted over from 12 yards.

Bonner continued: “When you concede so early on to such a poor goal, you're playing against a team that are direct, aggressive, intense, got some pace in the team, hard running players in the team, they do what they do well.

“They've been better than us at it twice (winning 2-1 at Hayes Lane in early December) and so were Colchester and so were Wimbledon.

“We need more players that can do that as well as having the balance of players that can take the ball and handle the ball and make the moments count.

“We had loads of entries in the top third and didn't quite make the quality that we needed in certain situations so.

“Always, as a coach, you blame yourself and you take responsibility for everything but of course you're not responsible for everything, there's individual players that have got to do better and a team that's got to do better as well.

“At the moment none of us are delivering a good enough level.”