Even Gillingham’s mild-mannered boss Gareth Ainsworth lost his cool with his players after Saturday’s debacle.
Ainsworth had just felt the wrath of the fans, following the 3-0 home defeat to Oldham Athletic, leaving the pitch to a chorus of abuse.
The Gills boss admitted he needed to cool off, however, after starting his post-match debrief to the players.
“I’m usually calm,” said the 52-year-old. “I’ve been calm the majority of my career in management.
“We have quite a young team at times, but you have to lose it as well with them, as long as it’s constructive, it’s not just ranting and throwing things. That’s not me. If people want to see that, then you’re not going to see it from me.
“It’s a constructive rant. I actually walked out of the dressing room after a couple of minutes saying, ‘I’m going to say something I regret here, so I’m going to get out of here’.”
Defeat leaves the Gills 16th in League 2.
He’ll have the players back in early next week to go through the videos of what went wrong.
He said: “You go through the video, you sit the boys down. Again, there’ll be rants next week because it wasn’t good enough, and I have to make sure that the boys know that.
“You have to win your challenges, minimum. You have to compete, minimum.
“The middle of the park sometimes becomes much of a muchness, but in both boxes, you have to be absolutely solid and ruthless, and we were neither solid nor ruthless, and that’s the game.
“It’s going to be a long week, because we’ve got to put it all right and get up to Barrow next week and put a performance in that is worthy of Gillingham Football Club and worthy of League Two, because we were beaten convincingly.”
Gillingham fans have been patient this season – one which started so well before a run of one win in 15 left early promotion hopes down the drain.
Back-to-back wins against the bottom two gave some fans renewed hope, but five losses from their last six leave the Gills facing 14 more games with promotion hopes all-but extinguished.
That frustration was felt at Priestfield, with anger aimed at the players and chants of “you’re not fit to wear the shirt.”
Ainsworth said: “The fans have got their right to be angry and upset. I would be.
“Football fans are paying the money to come and see a team.
“They want to support a team. Win, lose or draw, they want their team to be good enough to compete. We weren’t.
“I hear every shout. I hear every fan when I’m walking off and I can feel the frustration. That hurts me.
“I’m not one of these managers that goes, ‘Oh, sod you, you don’t mean anything’. Of course they mean something. They mean loads to me, the fans.
“They come in, pay their money, they get behind me and they make me feel so welcome. I’ve let them down.
“I’m hoping the players will take some responsibility but if they don’t, ultimately it’s on me. I’m the manager.
“I feel for the fans and that [performance] is not acceptable to me. If they think I wasn’t good enough, I’ll improve as well.”
