Johnson rues early errors

LOOKING FOR ANSWERS . . . Athletic boss Lee Johnson.

EARLY mistakes and a lack of second-half nous were the main reasons Athletic manager Lee Johnson felt his men failed to get a positive result at Gillingham.

“It was disappointing to lose, but I thought we gave it a real go, so I was proud of the players for that,” Johnson said.

“We just let ourselves down on a couple of things. We didn't quite show enough quality in the final third for all our dominance. And there were the individual errors at the start. To give a team a two-goal lead, it is very difficult to then get a foothold in the game.

“In fairness, we got back into it through some good play and a penalty and then some good shutting down by Dominic Poleon. “The ball just didn't drop for us when we needed it to.”

Athletic's boss felt his side's lack of creativity after the break comes down to a shortage of numbers.

He was, though, impressed by new loan signing Jacob Mellis.

“When Jacob came on he was excellent. He got on the ball a lot and had loads of touches. He knew where the space was and created things, so I was really pleased with that.”