Gillingham boss Mark Bonner said it felt “like a defeat” after Swindon Town snatched a late leveller to continue his side’s winless run.
In a game where the Kent side had a man advantage for most of the contest, Harry Smith grabbed a 93rd-minute equaliser to give The Robins their first point under the new leadership of Ian Holloway.
Grant Hall was given his marching orders just nine minutes into the match and Tim Dieng put Gills in front shortly after. They controlled much of the contest but the home side at The County Ground pushed on and finally found the back of the net three minutes before the end of the contest.
“Hard One To Take”
Speaking to the club’s official media following the contest in Wiltshire, former Cambridge United boss Bonner said:
“It feels like a defeat when we’re so close to taking three points from the game. It’s a hard one to take for us, the supporters and the players.“I thought that we controlled the first-half well, with the early red card for them. We didn’t execute enough of the attacks that we had because we had some really good moments on the break and were in control of the game.“We probably got a little bit too slow in our own half at times and didn’t penetrate and get enough bodies high up the pitch. But we had chances and didn’t get the second goal, which is the killer in the game.”
Unwanted Run Continues
Gillingham have now gone six games without a win, and their next, arguably biggest, test comes in the form of Blackpool in the first round of the FA Cup. The rest of their upcoming fixtures do also look similarly tough with a relentless Port Vale their upcoming league opponents.
Writer’s View
Mark Bonner is rightfully bitterly disappointed with that. Gillingham had all three points in the bag and could have bounced back from that poor run to try and reclaim the form that just a few weeks ago had them in the automatic places in League Two. For victory to slip away in the dying minutes when they had a man advantage is a massive blow and with their next fixtures, a victory does look some while away.
1st Class Honours in Multimedia Journalism at Salford University. Writing mainly about League Two.
