Gillingham manager Mark Bonner felt his team were too easy to create chances against on Saturday and was fuming at Accrington’s late winner.
The Gills were beaten 2-1 as Dara Costelloe fired home in the fourth minute of stoppage-time.
Report: Gills 1 Accrington 2
Bonner said: “We are as angry and frustrated as you could imagine we would be, losing late, but probably the team that was going to win it was them.
“We gave them too many chances in the second half, way too easy to create a chance against. The second goal is a disgrace from us.
“It’s a disgrace. It’s a free-kick, deep in the pitch, and we don’t head it. And then we’re so easy to work through. If you look back at the earliest part of the season where we were so hard to create a chance against, now we’re giving up goals.
“Grimsby ran all the way through the middle of the pitch, Crewe ran all the way through us, soft, too easy to break, too open in the games.
“You try and chase it but if you leave yourself that vulnerable and you don’t defend really, really simple moments, you give the team a chance. They had too many chances in the second half.
“They play in a way that can make it quite a chaotic game, quite a stretched game as we said, so it’s no shock there’s quite a lot of chances at both ends.
“When we go one (goal) up here, you wouldn’t expect for us to be as easy to play against. We went one up and we started the second half well, scoreing a brilliant goal, but the period after that, we just let their team in the game.
“We don’t take control of it. It’s like we’re just happy our game might be done now because we’re one up.
“It’s nonsense. It’s absolutely nonsense. Play to win the game, play to score the next goal, play with some intensity and some character and keep going.
“We haven’t done it. We haven’t done it well enough again.”
Armani Little put the Gills in front early in the second half but rather than build on that, the home side let the visitors back in the game.
Accrington equalised 10 minutes later through Ben Woods, after sloppy play at the back, and were the wide open as Costelloe struck the stoppage-time winner.
Bonner continued: “We’ve had good moments, but we haven’t had enough. We haven’t had enough quality moments. We had a great chance first half to go 1-0 up (through Marcus Wyllie).
“We scored a really good goal second half but we’ve waited weeks to play a second half towards that (Rainham End) and get some momentum. We don’t create any in the second half.
“We changed the shape and we changed the team as the game goes on to try and chase the win. At the same time, we just didn’t find anywhere near enough quality and enough impact.
“When we went one-up, we got ourselves ahead and then we’ve literally gifted them a goal to get back in the game. It gives them encouragement but a little bit of that comes off a period of us just letting the game be nothing.
“One of the consequences of that is moments come to your door where opposition get chances and get some encouragement.
“In the end, we’ve shot ourselves in the foot and allowed them back in the game, and given them a foot up, and then cost ourselves right at the end.
“When it goes against us at the minute, I don’t like the attitude of the team and the personality to get themselves in a game and have a right go at it. They can dislike me for saying it and telling people that, but it’s only what I’ll tell them.
“It’s the worst result in the world for us and the worst way to lose it right at the end. We should be taking that game on once we go 1-0 up and be the team that scores the next goal. That’s what I think we should be doing.”
