A first half shocker at Southend may have served as a wake-up call for Gillingham.

Boss Steve Lovell has had few set-backs since taking charge but a 4-0 defeat at Southend – conceding all four in the opening half - was comfortably the worst game of his short tenure.

Lovell said: “Sometimes something like this gives you a kick up the backside, it makes you realise that it is not all easy.

“We can’t always expect to get the ball down and pass it, like we have done, we have to win the battles first.

“All of the games we have played in this year we have been in and had a chance. This one was taken away from us in the first half by our own doing for the first time. We have to make sure we put it right for Saturday.”

Gillingham take on Doncaster Rovers at Priestfield.

The Gills have now lost three in a row, ending talk of a play-off chase. Lovell’s first task was to get over 50 points to all-but guarantee survival in League 1 but that has yet to be achieved.

He said: "It seems to be taking a long time coming doesn’t it? We have got seven games to do it in and a lot of home games coming up.

“It is just about getting eleven players out on the pitch now with a few injuries. We will see how we are Saturday and there could be a few changes.

But he added: “I don’t want to get too carried away with changing everything because the boys have been magnificent all season, this is the first time I have had to speak about being really disappointed.

“It wasn’t because of effort, just simple things like marking and doing the things that we have worked on. I thought we got exposed down our left hand side a lot early on because of people not doing their job properly. You can’t have that.”

Read more on the Gills in this week's Medway Messenger newspaper