Gillingham manager, Gareth Ainsworth has rued his team’s “calamity” in a 3-1 away defeat at Accrington Stanley.
Stefan Mols opened the scoring for Accrington before he provided the two assists for Josh Woods’ brace, whilst Devon Matthews’ own-goal from Omar Beckles’ volley gave Gillingham hope of a comeback before Woods’ second goal settled the contest.
Gillingham consequently slipped to sixth in the League Two table after York City and Walsall both picked up draws elsewhere.
Ainsworth post-match praised Accrington for their work rate and desire to extend their unbeaten run at home in all competitions to eight matches, as he spoke to Gills TV about the message he gave his players which actually materialised.
“They are strong at home. They ran harder than us; they won their duels more than us, and they kept going relentlessly at us. They got corners and set pieces.
“Everything that I told the boys before the game that Accy would do. They will try and win the seconds, and they will keep putting it on you. They will get their set pieces, put their set pieces in the box, have a good delivery and good runs. They were terrible goals to concede.”
Ainsworth also admitted that his Gills were second-rate throughout as he rued the atrocious manner in which they conceded the first goal from a mix-up between Ollie Wright and Armani Little, that allowed Mols to intercept and sweep into the net.
“We didn’t look like getting back in the game, and that was the worrying thing. We looked a little bit weaker than them, and we can’t look like that. The boys have to step up and be stronger than that because that was not my team that I want to see.
“The first goal is a bit of a calamity, and then the two corners were terrible marking from us, so we have to make sure that we are right on that.
“They could have had a couple more. They hit the post and had a couple of shots. We didn’t look like scoring today, and that was the worry for me. We didn’t look like we were going to get back into the game.”
Ainsworth also took a swipe at his team’s set-piece play which he felt was toothless because Accrington were more aggressive, which he consequently admired in terms of the opposition’s performance.
“We work hard on set plays and defending set pieces, and that hurts me personally when that goes in, but they seem to win four, five or six set pieces today.
“They got a lot more set pieces than us, and we are usually doing it to the other team. We are usually the ones doing the aggressing and getting corners and free-kicks.
Accy did it today, and you have to give them credit. They were the better team today. I hate saying that, but they were.
Ainsworth nevertheless iterated his belief in his players to bounce back when they host Port Vale at 8pm BST on Tuesday 20 October.
“I believe in these boys, and I still believe in them, and I am putting that down to an off day. I will look at myself, and hopefully the players will look at themselves, and we can all come back in on Monday morning ready to go against Port Vale.
“We have been good at home, and I am sure that the place will be packed. It’s a Tuesday night under the lights and on TV. It is a great opportunity for the boys to put everything right, but they have some tough people.”
I just told the boys that places are up for grabs. Let’s see what we can do.