Gillingham don’t do comebacks and it’s something head coach Stephen Clemence is well aware of.
When the Gills went behind at home to Bradford City on Saturday the stats suggested the result was only going one way. Gillingham hadn’t picked up a point all season when conceding first and that trend continued at the weekend, with the visitors scoring a second to win 2-0.
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The last time the Gills won from behind came last season, back in February, as they beat Wimbledon 2-1 with goals from Max Ehmer and Cheye Alexander. It was the only comeback win of that campaign.
Clemence said: “I think we are all well aware of that stat, the players are too, they know that.
“When you have something like that against you and it can drag on for a season, it becomes about mentality.
“I have said to the boys, ‘you are going to go behind, you have been playing football all your lives, you have gone behind in matches all your life, but you still have to keep going and doing the right things.
“You can’t get a scrambled brain every time you go a goal behind, you still have to do the basics right and compete the way you were at 0-0, you will come back into it’.
“It is a bit of a problem for us at the moment but I have seen it before and you can come out of it, I am sure we will.
“It is always difficult, no matter what level you play at, when you go a goal behind, in professional football it is tough to come back.
“The stats tell you at every level that when you go a goal behind more often than not you don’t get the result you want.”
Gillingham didn’t have to worry about comebacks early in the season when they opened the campaign with four successive 1-0 wins. They’ve now won seven games by that scoreline out of their 10 league victories.
The last – and only – comeback win in all competitions for the Gills this season came in the EFL Trophy on September 5 when they battled back from a goal down against Leyton Orient to win 2-1 – helped by a visiting side who had two players sent off while leading the match.
