Boss Steve Evans was left to rue a golden chance to win Saturday’s game at Rochdale.

Gillingham striker Mikael Mandron had a late chance with the score tied at 2-2 but drove a shot at the keeper.

Report: Rochdale 2 Gillingham 2

It was a big miss for the Gills, who have now drawn their last four in the league.

Evans said: “I don’t think we were at our best but we still dominated the first half for long, long spells.

“We go behind to a penalty and I am not sure there is contact. I am not sure it was in the box so I need to look at both, but you have to deal with it. It’s poor defensively (leading up to the penalty) from our right side.

“We get back in the game after a great delivery (from Olly Lee off a corner) and a great header from Jordan Roberts and we turn around, perhaps we should be infront. They stepped it up when we came back out and then we had a little spell and Jordan scores a good goal.

“Then defensively we were really poor again, on the right side, we didn’t win the header, we didn't match the runner, then I think in fairness the game has gone a bit end to end.

"We miss an absolute sitter to win and a striker of League 1 level needs to put them in the net, with 10 minutes to go. When you are fighting for a cause, I don’t care what anyone says, you have to score, that’s your bread and butter.”

While Mandron should have put his chance away, Evans felt fellow senior player Barry Fuller should have done better at the back.

He said: “For someone of 35, he has had a lot of games in that position and I think it caught him.

"The pitch was decent, no complaints, I think he gets drawn into a bad position (for the Rochdale penalty), probably Stuart (O’Keefe) doesn’t cover him and Jack (Bonham, the keeper) hesitates which probably gives the referee a doubt but I still don’t know if there was any contact. I think the crowd behind the goal have got them the penalty.

“We got the breakthrough with a great finish from Jordan and I thought we were in control for 10 minutes, we had them on the back foot, we score a third and it’s over, but they made changes. We don’t win a header against Wilbraham and we don’t track the runner and again it came from our right side.

“I think it’s two points dropped. We give a suicidal penalty away, if it is a penalty, I’ll reserve judgment on that but we gave a poor second goal away. We scored two goals from routines we’ve worked on at the training ground and we miss a sitter to win the game.”