Gillingham interim manager Keith Millen admitted he was surprised at the lack of fightback from his team in the second half against Newport.
The Gills gave away two first-half penalties, both scored by Omar Bogle, which set the home side back, but they still had chances with Macauley Bonne having a one-on-one chance saved and Connor Mahoney striking the crossbar. More: FA investigate after spectator arrested “It was a tough one to get my head around,” said the stand-in boss, after the 2-0 defeat. “I wasn’t expecting that performance or result and it’s difficult to digest, certainly on the back of the last two good performances. “They changed their shape and went to a 5-3-2, which they have not done before, and we hadn’t worked on it or expected it that.
That threw us a little bit. “We had done a lot of work on what their formation was supposed to be, or what we thought it would be.
We didn’t quite get to grips with their shape early on in the game. “We had some passing moves, some possession, without really looking like creating any chances. “After about 15 minutes I was trying to get onto the pitch to say to them, it wasn’t rocket science, we had just played against a 5-3-2 on Tuesday, it was a case of telling them what they needed to do out of possession and what shape we needed to look like.” The Gills were quickly two goals down.