Gillingham boss Gareth Ainsworth admitted he let rip at half-time after a first-half horror show against Bromley on Saturday.
The full extent of Ainsworth’s rage will be kept behind closed doors but he was fuming with his side’s poor defending as League 2 leaders Bromley raced into a 3-0 lead within 28 minutes at Priestfield before going on to complete a 4-1 victory.
“I don’t believe that going full blast and full hairdryer mode, the modern game doesn’t really have much room for that,” stated Ainsworth. “Not week in, week out, people get used to it.
“But I told the boys in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t happy at all.
“There weres some real under-par performances, some unrecognisable players on that pitch and unless they put it right, then I’m going to have to change this around. I’m going to have to start changing things.
“I think the formation change after 30 minutes helped us, definitely.
“But it was a tough half-time that, because it’s not just the shape or the way you play you want to put right. You want to put right individual mistakes that you don’t expect from certain players.
“That’s like, wow, where’s that come from? But there’s reasons. The reasons will be kept behind closed doors, as always, and I will make sure that this team is firing next weekend.”
Ainsworth didn’t let his players take all the responsibility.
He’ll also be reviewing what he did wrong. Having lined up with a 4-3-3 formation, the Gills let in three goals at home for the first time under Ainsworth and had switched to 3-5-2 just past the half-hour mark.
“I picked the team,” said the Gills boss. “It’s on me, that one. I am gutted for the fans because I know how important that one was.
“Bromley showed a lot of why they are top of the league and took some fantastic chances, but there was some unrecognisable stuff from us.
“We’ve been so good lately, and not just lately, for a long time. That’s probably our worst home performance for quite some time and defensively, we weren’t good at all.
“Second half, I think they’ve had one shot on goal and scored it. We really took it to them second half, but it didn’t need changes and me to go off at half-time just for that to happen.
“I expected us to be right from the start. But, again, I’m the manager, it’s me, put it on me, I’ll protect these boys because they give me everything, but we didn’t get it right.”
Ainsworth watched Bromley’s 2-2 draw against Crewe at Hayes Lane on Tuesday night.
The visitors had two debutants in their back four but it looked like the Gills who were playing together for the first time.
“It’s my team, I’m the manager,” added Ainsworth. “I’ll take full responsibility for that and I’ll put it right on Tuesday, that’s what I’m here for.
“But I have to pick the bones out of that and we’ll do it behind closed doors, but it wasn’t good enough at times.
“It was as-billed, they’re top of the league and I’ve got a huge amount of respect for Andy Woodman and what he’s done with that club.
Read more: Gillingham 1-4 Bromley match report
“They’re up there for a reason, they’ve blown some teams away and they certainly blew us away in that first half. Second half, we were much better.
“You can’t concede four goals at home and expect to get something out of the game. It’s just not good enough.”
