Gillingham boss Peter Taylor spoke to his club's official website ahead of his side's League One game against Carlisle at Brunton Park on Saturday, Taylor first looking back on the Gills going down 3-1 at Stevenage on Tuesday evening:
“I was proud of the second-half performance because we were up against it, we had ten men against eleven and that eleven men hadn’t played for a couple of weeks and we had just had a tough game here on Saturday on a very heavy pitch. So, I am sure the boys were feeling a touch tired but they showed great determination to keep passing the ball and keep trying to create chances to get us a result.
“It is only unfortunately some very disappointing defending that cost us, I think on the ball we did some good things. The third goal for me was a really frustrating goal because to me it wasn’t good enough. The ball wasn’t good enough by Stevenage and we should have handled that much better than we did. So, that was frustrating because once we got a goal back then we would have asked a few questions of Stevenage.
“So, we needed it to stay like that a little bit longer, set up another attack, get them a bit more nervous and then who knows what would have happened. But, I think when the third goal went in that killed us. But, I think the boys hung in there, simple as that and in the end they could have got something but Stevenage played some good stuff as well. We played some good Football at times so everybody is improving; we just need to cut out the silly mistakes.”
“I changed the team around a bit because we needed to save some legs as the pitch was so heavy here on Saturday. We lost the match so people will say it is a bad decision, but we have lost matches with other people in the team, so it doesn’t mean you are going to win anyway. I haven’t made my mind up on the team for Carlisle, we will have to wait and see on that one on Saturday.
“I have to be fair with everybody to see what I think is going to be right for the match. A lot of players have got to stand up and look after themselves and look after their team-mates by voicing instructions a bit more, rather than just leaving it to the captain all the time. But, on the other side of that the squad is getting stronger and more experienced because the injuries are clearing up now.
“I think it will be nice to go to Carlisle on the train, I think it will be nice for the players as long as the train is on time and we are not late. When I was at Hull we used to use the train quite a bit and I think the players enjoyed it, so it is just a shame that we can’t get the train back because that would be even better. We are looking forward to that, we are looking forward to a very important match.
“Carlisle are like ourselves, they haven’t got enough points, they are not safe yet. So, we have got to make sure that we approach the game right and we start improving on some of the things we keep doing wrong. I speak to Graham Kavanagh quite a bit, he played here for Stoke in that play-off semi-final when I was here before, so he is a good lad. I think he has done very well, he is very well respected by his players and they seem to enjoy playing for him, but of course that is out of the window once the match starts.”