Manager Steve Lovell defended his players after their midweek defeat to Rotherham but struggled this time around, as the home crowd voiced their discontent.

Gillingham lost 3-0 at home to Blackpool and are now just five points off the League 1 relegation zone.

Home fans made their feelings known with boos throughout the afternoon.

Lovell said: “It wasn’t very nice to watch and the supporters are quite right in their comments, I am with them, I am a supporter myself and I would be disgusted as well.

“I thought on Tuesday they gave everything and had a go, today the majority didn’t.

"A lot of them will have come off the pitch thinking ‘I should have done better and I could have run further, run quicker, won that header, won that tackle, got on the end of that cross, could have put that cross in,’ but they didn’t.”

Report: Gillingham 0 Blackpool 3

Lovell’s side offered little goal threat all afternoon and were chasing a two-goal deficit after a poor first 45 minutes.

“First half was non-existent as far I was concerned,” he said.

“It’s the first time I have really been let down by the players.

“I have stood up for them for this season and quite rightly so, because they have given everything, but first half there was nothing, nothing positive.

“I am a positive person but there is nothing I can take positively out of the first half, nothing whatsoever.

“We had a go second half but it’s too late, we’re 2-0 down, it could have been three with the penalty (that hit the post early in the second half).

"They thoroughly deserved their victory. They didn’t have to do much second half, they are 2-0 up, they did away from home what we have done to teams. They score early and they see it out, that’s the way it is in this league.”

Gillingham have failed to score in any of their last four home games.

“It doesn’t look like we have got a goal in us,” said the manager, whose side have scored just twice in their last eight games.

“There were players who have performed well this season but on that performance it was poor. I was very disappointed.

“Like I say, it is not always about the result, but the performance, because if you keep performing you get the results. We deserved nothing out of that because of the poor performance.

"There were people out there who threw the towel in, that tells me a lot about characters, it has to be addressed.

"We have two games to go, I have got to pick a team now ready for next week and hopefully get a result at Bristol Rovers.

"I am sure there will be a response in next week’s performance but we have to do better."