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Gillingham’s Regan Charles-Cook was happy to make a positive impact on Saturday but there was to be nothing to celebrate in the end.
He levelled for the Gills late on but was then unable to keep out a shot from former team-mate Callum Reilly that won the game for AFC Wimbledon.
Charles-Cook’s goal came just after captain Max Ehmer had left the field injured, briefly levelling the scores at 1-1.
He said: “We’ve gone down to 10 men, we’ve got the equaliser and you could see that we were still trying to go for that extra goal.
“We are not looking to draw games, you could see our intent to try and score an extra goal.
“We needed to go and get another goal, we are on our home turf, this is our fortress and not many have beaten us at home. It was a sucker punch (to concede a second) and not nice to take.
“Jack Bonham had made a good save and then reacted well to save the second, we tried to get it away. The ball has gone off shins and everything in the box, it fell into the path of Callum Reilly, I tried to block him but it’s gone through my legs and that’s not a good way to end the game.”
Reilly’s winner came just four minutes after Charles-Cook looked to have given the Gills at least a point.
“When you lose, the goal means nothing,” he said.
“There was a lot of disappointment afterwards, especially after losing two games to AFC in a season, it’s very disappointing.
“You could see that on the boys’ faces when the goal went in, but we still tried to get one right at the end.
“It’s just a bump in the road and it wasn’t our day.”
The Gills are now seven points adrift of the play-offs but the fight goes on, says the midfielder.
“There are 10 games left, 30 points to take,” he said.
“We will back ourselves all the way. Nobody backed us at the start of the season to be this high up in the table already and only be a few points off it.
"A couple of wins on the bounce and we are back in it.
“We are disappointed but we will pick ourselves up and start again afresh, work on what we need to work on before going to the Stadium of Light (to play Sunderland) and hopefully pick up three points there.
“We back ourselves all the way. We are going into games to win, we are not going to play safe, not at all, that is what the manager digs into us.
“He is disappointed and we are disappointed as a group but come Monday we will be focused for Sunderland on Saturday. It’s going to be a big one.”
Geeing the boys up in the changing rooms after the match was captain Ehmer, despite his shoulder injury.
“He is our skipper and he raises morale in the changing room,” said Charles-Cook.
“He picks us up when we are down and even at the end of the game he was picking us up and saying ‘we are far from done here’ we have gone 15 games unbeaten, why not start another run?
“Max brings the group together, training days, match days, he is our leader and he leads us well.”
