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Gillingham first-team coach Nicky Southall writes exclusively for the KM Group

Nicky Southall
Nicky Southall

There was a lot of talk pre-match about the events which happened after our last meeting with Crawley but we were man enough to shake hands and move on.

We like to do things the right way and win, lose or draw we shake people's hands and hold no grudges.

We are professional in the way we go about things and know behind us in the stands, there are people watching us, including young children and we also have young kids sat on the bench.

Both teams are trying to win, however they go about it, but you have to be careful about how you conduct yourself on the touchline.

Some of the conduct I see on the line isn't right. We said before Tuesday's game we wouldn't get involved.

Every two seconds they (the Crawley staff) were out of the dugout and the technical area. The fourth official was constantly trying to get them back in.

Every time the ball is in our box they want a foul and it's the same when it's in their box. In the last five minutes we had five corners in a row and Steve Evans (Crawley manager) is saying "how many more corners does the referee want to give?"

They were actually corners and he wasn't giving them on purpose. "Your guy headed them out," I said to Steve.

He couldn't see that and thinks the referee is against him. It's crazy and you have to try and not get involved. It is difficult because of the way they go on.

We tried to avoid all that and play our game but unfortunately the boys on the pitch got wrapped up in the way Crawley played. We are not set up to play like that. We wanted to play the ball on the floor but they unsettled us.

The defeat was a big disappointment but we've still got a good chance of getting into the play-offs. Before the game we said we had a 10-game season and that's one gone now.

We have nine tough games coming up and in our run-in we play two teams above us.

The boys had put in a fantastic performance against Cheltenham on Saturday and despite a lot of injuries and suspensions, we dominated and won 3-0.

On Tuesday, we just for some reason didn't start right. We were a bit flat but give Crawley credit, they played the Crawley way and didn't give our boys any peace on the ball and stopped us getting it down.

Our boys gave it a go in the last 15 minutes when we had corner after corner. We nearly nicked a draw and if you look at our chances, maybe it would have been deserved.

We have to look forward now and have nine big battles ahead. We have two away games, at Bradford and then Burton, and if we play like we did against Cheltenham, I expect us to get six points and we will be back on track.

Kent Matchday Live
Kent Matchday Live
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