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Lincoln City 0 Gillingham 0: Gills manager Steve Evans felt Lincoln could have finished with eight men

Gillingham boss Steve Evans felt Lincoln could have finished with eight men at Sincil Bank on Saturday.

Lincoln ended with 10 men after left-back Tayo Edun collected a second yellow card in the 90th minute.

Lincoln's Tayo Edun was booked for this foul on Brandon Hanlan. He got a second yellow late on when the two players clashed. Picture: Ady Kerry
Lincoln's Tayo Edun was booked for this foul on Brandon Hanlan. He got a second yellow late on when the two players clashed. Picture: Ady Kerry

But Michael Bostwick escaped with just a yellow card in stoppage time for a crunching foul on Regan Charles-Cook - and Jake Hesketh was also cautioned in the first 15 minutes for a late challenge.

Evans felt that both fouls could have easily been red cards on another day.

“I’ve seen two challenges,” said Evans. “One on the touchline in the first half and the second one on Regan Charles-Cook at the end.

“They are absolutely disgraceful challenges and they’ve got no place in football and both players stayed on the pitch.

“I’ll discuss that with the referee, it was a tough game for him to referee, two physical sides who went toe to toe.”

Evans was going to talk to referee Tom Nield after the match, but he was also disappointed that Edun only got a red card after the Gills pointed out that the official had booked him earlier in the game.

“It was a real tough afternoon when you have to point out (to the referee) that he’s shown a second yellow card to the same player, and if you don’t point it out then he stays on the pitch,” added Evans.

“I think a share of the spoils based on what I’ve watched is probably right.

“I’ll seek clarity from a young referee that is plying his trade on why I had to point out that it was two yellows for the same player and secondly why there were two challenges that were probably punishable with a red card.”

It was never likely to be a classic as the game was played in strong winds.

Gills defended stubbornly against the conditions in the first half but Evans didn’t think they made the most of that advantage after the break.

“I don't think it was a (great) spectacle,” he said. “The wind obviously spoilt it, it was a game of two halves for me.

“The first half we had to defend it and I thought we did that relatively comfortably - they had one half chance at the back stick.

“Second half, we had a bit of the advantage with the weather but one or two decisions didn’t go our way.

“We’ve gone on the golf course, and we’ve worked ever so hard in the week and during our round. But when it’s a four iron, we’ve hit a six or an eight iron, and when it’s a putter we’ve hit a wedge.

“We were over-clubbed or under-clubbed with our final balls into the box, we didn’t pass with any fluidity. We didn’t play through the thirds when we could have dropped it into the strikers for example.

“We’ve left two points here. When we get to half-time and see we’ve got the advantage of the weather and the wind, you expect some players to up their performance in terms of the quality and we never really got that.

“I can remember three or four times when we got the ball in good areas in the final third and we never picked a cross or pass, it’s been overhit or underhit. You look at the set plays, a lot of them were overhit or underhit.”

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