Choosing against making any substitutions in Gillingham’s defeat at Newport was a decision the manager felt he had to explain.
The Gills were 3-0 down after 30 minutes in their League 2 match but had chances of their own that they didn’t take.
Reaction: Manager takes a share of the blame after Newport loss
Jimmy Jay-Morgan was the only change to the starting eleven from the weekend win over Morecambe and he scored Gillingham’s only goal of the night. Elliott Nevitt was close to getting the second.
Coleman kept faith with the same eleven throughout despite the likes of Oli Hawkins, Bradley Dack, Jack Nolan and leading scorer Jayden Clarke on the bench.
“I’ll get castigated tomorrow for not making subs,” Coleman said, in his post-match interview.
“I just didn’t think it was the time to put players on when the pitch was very, very firm.
“I think it would have taken anybody who comes on ten minutes to get used to the pitch. That’s not an excuse at all. That was the reason why I didn’t make a sub.
“I thought that we were pushing them back. We just needed a bounce of the ball in the box. That didn’t materialise.”
Coleman’s other unused subs on the night were Nelson Khumbeni, Conor Masterson and keeper Jake Turner.
In the recent game against Fleetwood, which the Gills lost 2-1, Coleman admitted his substitutes weakened the team.
The manager was critical of the pitch at Newport, likening it to a 3G surface.
He’d made a switch upfront after Hawkins had started the previous two.
The manager later added: “I have to take the responsibility of not making subs, but that’s my call. That’s what I’m paid to do.
“I know I’ll come under a bit of criticism for that. People will think, ‘if they made subs, it would have made a difference’. How do they know that? You don’t know that, do you?
“You could have made subs and it don’t make a difference. We made the decision to leave Oli Hawkins out because he’s had two tough games in a week. We’re trying to be mindful of getting the right blends and the right minutes into people’s legs.”
Commenting on the pitch, he added: “The pitch wasn’t very good. It was like playing on astroturf.
“The pitch was very, very firm. You could pass the ball on it. But sometimes you have to be wary of the way you pass. I think that was our undoing. The ball bounced off us too much.
“It didn’t (bounce) off them and I’ve got to give them credit for that. Sometimes you can’t govern what the opposition do. When you do some skillful play, you’ve got to applaud them but we should have been mindful of that. We should have been tighter in midfield.”
Coleman felt Morgan played well when coming into the team.
He said: “Jimmy Morgan was good. I thought Joe Gbode was good but they’ve got to make the most of their moments. They’ve got to result in goals. Unfortunately for us tonight, they didn’t score enough goals.”
