Manager Mark Bonner admitted there was frustration from his players after defeat to Peterborough – knowing they had chances to beat the League 1 team.
Bonner made nine changes for Tuesday’s EFL Trophy match, including players coming back from injury and others who needed minutes. His team were still able to mix it with their League 1 opponents, who won the game 2-1.
Report: Gills 1-2 Peterborough
“I think the lads are properly frustrated,” he said.
“We feel like we’ve given them a couple of goals and the game was there for us to get more out of than we got.
“I love the fact we’re chasing it. I love the fact that we’re fuming with the referee for blowing up so quickly at the end and that we want to chase and try and get another goal.
“There’s good mentality building in the team.
“Our frustration is that we’ve lost it. Despite the fact that they’ve had some good chances in the game, and they’ll be delighted with their finishes, we’re really frustrated with the goals we’ve conceded because we think they’re preventable on our part.
“In the first 12 minutes we’ve had real control of that game and given a moment away. One pass beats us and they get a run off of us and we can’t allow that against really athletic players, but we ended up behind them.
“We shouldn’t really have been behind at half-time. At worst, that should have been a level game.”
Peterborough scored a terrific second goal with 15 minutes left before the Gills halved the deficit with Elliott Nevitt’s headed effort in stoppage-time.
Bonner said: “We have used that game clearly to save some, to get some minutes into others.
“We had a really good chance at one nil down. We had a really good chance at two nil down before we scored our one. One (chance) for Joe (Gbode), one Lapo (Lapslie), which we should do better with. We had moments in the game we didn’t quite make the most most of.
“I thought it was a really good game and I thought we played really well.
“I felt like we had a lot more control of that game, certainly in the first half than we’ve had of many so far. I thought we played with a good confidence with the ball and connected the game quite nicely.
“I thought we were a real match for them.”
Unlike many other managers, Bonner bigged up the competition prior to the game and the chance to see the likes of Bradley Dack helped swell the attendance to over 1,600 – a decent crowd for the competition.
Bonner said: “I think you’ll get out of the game what you put into it.
“I’ve seen some games in this competition and they’re absolute pants. No one gets anything out of it, it’s a complete waste of time, but everyone’s attitude actually going into it stinks anyway, and no one wants to play in it.
“I’ve told the lads, this is the squad. Don’t come asking for an easy ride. Nights off. We’re not having it. I’ll decide who plays, when they play, and you need to be ready.
“Every time we play, whoever plays, we’ve got to play with the personality of a Gillingham team and we’ve got to keep looking like us, whatever the mix up is.
“What the season’s done so far is constantly throw us those challenges of ‘right, you’ve got to adjust the team and how do you look?’ So there was loads to like in that.
“There was loads to take out of it. There’s a frustration, because we don’t want to celebrate losing games, ever, and at all. But that aside, we’ve used the game in the right way and we’ve got loads out of it.”
