A lack of quality at the top end of the pitch left the Gillingham manager fuming on Saturday.
The Gills couldn’t produce the quality needed to score at Crewe and came away beaten 2-0.
Report: Crewe 2 Gillingham 0
Goals in each half by Shilow Tracey – demonstrating the quality in front of goal that Gills were lacking – was enough to clinch the win for Crewe and knock Bonner’s men off top spot in League 2.
Gillingham ended the weekend second in the table, behind Walsall on goals scored, and ahead of Barrow on goal-difference.
“I was fuming,” said Bonner, in his post-match assessment.
“We shouldn’t lose the game 2-0, but we come away from home and get beat on two counter-attacking moments.
“At the moment, we haven’t got the quality that they’ve got to finish their ones off like that.
“We didn’t create enough, not enough quality in our attacking play at all, when we’re chasing the game or in other moments.
“We had lots of it. We had lots of intent, particularly in the last 10-15 minutes. We need to play with that urgency more often and we’ve got to find miles more quality to make more situations of them.”
Defeat at Crewe followed a home loss to Grimsby town in midweek.
Bonner said: “In the games that we’ve played this week, we’ve just seen a bit of a lack of sharpness in our play, a bit of a lack of creativity and invention in our play, and a lack of an ability to create really good chances and test the goalkeeper.
“It’s like huff and puff, but nothing to blow the door down.
“I’m fuming, really, because I just don’t think it’s a game that you should come and lose 2-0. We give ourselves problems in the game.”
Remeao Hutton lost the ball for the opener on 17 minutes and Tracey finished well for the second, scored on 60.
Bonner said: “(An) individual error gets punished in the first moment of a counter-attack and then a second-half counter-attack where absolute electric pace does us, but the finish is a very, very good one from Tracey.
“We’re not in a position where we’re taking those moments or making enough of those moments ourselves.
“Despite changing lots around a little bit, some necessity, some trying to chase the game with lots of attacking players on the pitch, there’s a few out there at the moment that, good God, we’re desperate for some training weeks to get them up to the level of the tempo of the games first, but also to work on the things that we need to off the back of this week.
“I don’t think there’s a lack of effort in there at all, and I don’t think it’s a horrendous performance, but it’s just not good enough in the attacking half of the pitch to cause the team a problem.
“In the end, the first goal creates the same scenario as Tuesday, and you know they’re going to become a real counter-attacking team in the second half.
“With pace high up the pitch, that’s always going to be a problem and then it becomes, ‘what does our game look like tactically in terms of making sure we don’t leave ourselves open to that? But more importantly, technically, when we get to the top end of the pitch, have we got the right idea about how we create a chance?
“Do we cross at the right time? Do we play short or long at the wrong time? And we got in a mess in too many moments where we just misplaced passes and didn’t cross very well or didn’t cross well at the right times, things like that, that just cause us lots of issues.
“There were too many touches to get a shot off around the box. We have quite a few moments and quite a few attempts at goal in the end, I remember in the second half as it went on, but we’ve got to find more quality in that to be a top team.”
