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Gillingham assistant manager Paul Raynor wasn’t mincing his words after watching their team crash out of the FA Cup to lower division opponents on Saturday
He branded the performance against Exeter City as rubbish and had a warning to those who weren’t listening to instructions.
“Rubbish, particularly first half,” Raynor said, when summing up the 3-2 loss to their League 2 visitors.
“We said to the guys (before the match) but if you disrespect a quality team like Exeter then you’ll get beat.
"First half they didn’t heed the warnings. They didn’t listen to what we said about the problems they could cause us, about if we didn’t play with intensity, if we didn’t close them down and track runners and we got what what we deserved. Over 90 minutes they deserved to go through and we didn’t.”
Raynor feared what was going to happen after watching the team warm up and even after taking the lead the management team weren’t happy with what they were watching. Exeter were 3-1 up by the break.
He said: “There wasn’t that real intensity in the warm-up, they didn’t look sharp.
“We spoke on the pitch before the game just after the warm-up and I reminded them again before we went out. They obviously didn’t heed those warnings and if people don’t want to listen then they won’t be around, they won’t be here, it’s as simple as that.
“It is quite brutal but that is the fact of life. It is the way it is.
“We had told them not to be complacent. The gaffer watched Exeter at Bradford, they are a good side and they could have won that day 6-2. We showed clips of them beating Colchester 6-1 (on Tuesday night) and what a good team there were and what good players they have.
“We just seemed lacklustre and not as sharp as we could be.”
The Gills got a goal back with 10 minutes left through Dominic Samuel and almost snatched an equaliser with the last kick, keeper Jack Bonham firing over the bar.
Raynor said: “If we had played like we did in the last 10 minutes, with that intensity and that power and pace then we would have probably gone through, but I can’t make excuses, they were better than us on the day.
“Jack missed an open goal with five seconds to go but that was the day we were having. We can’t just look at that and the last 10 minutes when we threw everything at them, we have to look at the whole 90 minutes and we are out of the FA Cup which is bitterly disappointing.
“The gaffer said to me that’s the first time in 22 years we (as a management team) had lost to a club lower than us in the pyramid and that is difficult to take because that is down to attitude, that is not down to ability, it’s about people turning up on then day.
“If the desire and the intensity is not there, the work rate and aggression is not there to win the first ball and the second ball and to track runners and make forward runs then you have got no chance, whatever level. If you haven’t got that you are going to lose the game and that is what happened.”
