Gillingham manager Mark Bonner felt his team deserved to have taken something from their game at Bradford.
The Gills went ahead against Bradford but conceded twice in the opening half to lose the game 2-1 – the club’s fourth straight loss in League 2.
Report: Bradford 2 Gillingham 1
“We warranted something from the game,” said Bonner, who had made six changes to his team after last weekend’s home defeat against Accrington.
“I thought it was a fairly balanced and even game.
“We were excellent in the first 25-30 minutes of the first half. We started well, scored a great goal and actually had one or two moments very similar to that.
“One’s pea-rolled and hit the post and the defender’s cleared it, stopping Hawks from tapping in.
“We were really pleased with the intent in that game.
“We picked a team that was big and physical to try and make ourselves as robust as possible against a really physical team.”
The early signs were good after Bradford had a goal ruled out for offside and Jayden Clarke fired in for the Gills with just 11 minutes played.
But Bradford hit back with two goals late in the half – enough to take the points.
Bonner said: “For a game that was had a lot of big, aggressive players (it was a really) a good, aggressive English football match.
“There weren’t many bad tackles, but there seemed to be shed loads of yellow cards, which was a bit crazy. I felt like that just lost the rhythm of the game.
“The game became more emotional in the first half than it needed to be, just from some erratic decisions, really.
“That said, despite the team that we picked, we’re absolutely fuming with ourselves because of the two goals we conceded.
“When we’re set up like we are, we’re as big as we are, we certainly shouldn’t fall behind to goals like that, albeit that’s the strength of theirs, but it’s the strength of ours usually as well.”
Both goals conceded were from set-pieces with goalkeeper Jake Turner – back in goal for the injured Glenn Morris – and his defenders unable to deal with balls in the box
“We’re really frustrated that we haven’t been able to see those moments out. We should defend them both.”
Bradford’s equaliser came from a Jamie Walker corner and the home side’s second goal, in first-half injury time, from Richie Smallwood’s free-kick.
“I think the free kick (conceded) is ridiculously soft in the far corner against Jaydon,” said the Gills boss.
“You look at some of the treatment (Oli Hawkins) gets. He gets dragged to the ground and doesn’t get free-kicks, and then things like that get given. That’s just where it does your head in.
“Yes, we should do better, of course we should, but things like that just don’t help you in a game.
“That just frustrates the life out of you. Then players get really frustrated and get silly bookings, and it looks like the game has lost control a little bit in that last 15 minutes of the second half. It wasn’t that game, really.
“I don’t know how we made it turn into that. We lost the game because we didn’t defend our box properly, or we came searching a couple of times. Jake, we asked him to do that, but maybe we got caught a little bit there.
“Then we’re in at half-time, frustrated, but I tried to make the lads realise ill-discipline will lose us the game. Ten players on the pitch doesn’t help us.
“The second thing was the end of the first half (conceding a second) can make it feel like the first half was horrible, when actually it wasn’t.
“It was just like those moments where we end up in a bad position. The second half is a different kind of game.”
Bonner started with a physical team and started to make changes with around 20 minutes to go.
“We were going to get smaller (after the changes),” he said.
“It was going to become a bit more of a technical game. We had lots of the ball in the second half, but didn’t create enough quality moments or test the goalkeeper enough against that low block when we needed to face forward, play forward.
“We lost some moments to do that, but I really like the committed nature of the team.
“Four hundred fans supported us all day and clapped us off the pitch because they’ve seen a team that’s had a right go in the game. The frustration is that we’ve probably lost a game that we feel like we should have taken something out of.”
