Gillingham head coach Stephen Clemence felt there was an edginess to his side on Saturday as they struggled against the strugglers.

The Gills had won their previous three in the league and were up against a side bottom of the table on Saturday.

Report: Gillingham 1-1 Forest Green Rovers

“I am very disappointed with the result,” said the Gills head coach.

“I felt we fell below the standards that we have set recently, standards had been very high but I felt there was a little bit of an edginess to us and we all have to look at ourselves, myself included, the whole group.

“I know we can do a lot better than that.”

The opening half was a bit of a non-event with neither team looking like scoring.

Clemence said: “I felt that we were edgy from 10-15 minutes, it wasn’t going how we would have liked, we made some adjustments at half-time to try and help the boys, because they blocked us up and it is very difficult when they put a lot of bodies behind the ball, they put everyone behind the ball and it is very difficult to get through.

“We gave the boys some ideas on how to beat that block, which did help us and we had moments at the start of the second half.”

The Gills enjoyed a good spell before opening the scoring from a corner, headed in by Oli Hawkins, but then allowed the visitors to fight back, scoring an equaliser and then looking the more likely team to claim a win.

It ended 1-1 with the Gills a little fortunate to have taken a point.

Clemence said: “When we got one from a set-play you think, right come on, I felt we would go on and get a second now.

“To get that sucker punch was disappointing, but we could have them gone on and lost the game which would have really been a kick in the teeth.”

Forest Green had a new head coach in place following Troy Deeney’s sacking and new players in the side but Clemence felt his side were still good enough to win, had they showed up like they should have done.

Clemence said: “I tried to make it about us before the game and I felt it didn’t matter what they were going to do, I felt we were in a good place and that if we brought our game to them then we would go on and win the game. That’s what I tried to stress to the boys leading up to the game.

“Unfortunately we just didn’t reach the levels we have done in the last few games and that is why we haven’t got the three points.

“I have experienced myself as a player when you are at the top end of the table and you play teams at the bottom and you are expected to turn up and roll them over and it is not always that easy.

“You are playing against professional football players. I think Forest Green have got some okay players, I am surprised to see them at the bottom of the league.

“I haven’t watched all of their games but they have got some good footballers and so I am surprised to see them there but they are, we are expected to turn up and beat them and I expect us to win but it doesn’t always happen like that.

“They put everyone behind the ball, we couldn’t play around them, we couldn’t play through them so we ended up having to play over them and try and beat them that way, which we sorted out at half-time, I felt that worked and then we go a goal up and didn’t finish it off, it’s disappointing.”