Gillingham ended the calendar year of 2020 with a disappointing 3-1 defeat at Northampton Town that left manager Steve Evans and skipper Kyle Dempsey frustrated figures on Tuesday evening as a frustrating year ended in very frustrating fashion for the Gills.

Evans was far from happy as he spoke to reporters after the game bemoaning the poor defensive display in the first half and allowing the hosts to score a third immediately after half time which effectively killed the Gills’ hopes despite Dempsey’s free kick just before the break that gave the visitors renewed hope.

“You can’t concede from a goal like that in the first minute of the second half,” the Gills boss admitted. “That made it even more difficult against a side that fought really well for Keith (Curle, the Northampton boss), but my job is to focus on us, and we were well short!”

“We knew if we came here and scored first there would be a different type of atmosphere on the pitch – a different game – they were quiet early on when we had the ball but as soon as they scored, there were five or six of them all shouting for the ball. It what happens – it has to my teams in the past; we’ve just now got to focus on ourselves…”

Skipper Dempsey agreed with his manager, disappointed with the outcome as he explained, “it’s nice to get a goal but collectively as a whole, when you look at that tonight, it takes the shine off it. The third goal is an absolute killer. We get in at half time and we knew we have played poorly but to get that goal and go in there at 2-1, we thought we could go out and have a real good second half, get ourselves back in it and try and win the game. We conceded in the first minute of the second half and then it is a mountain to climb.”

“We need to show some real character against Plymouth at the weekend, we have a point to prove. We need to show a real determination to get three points. We need to bounce back and put this game behind us. We have to put all our focus into the New Year and put things right against Plymouth.”