Sunderland 1 Gillingham 0: Reaction from Gills boss Neil Harris after defeat at The Stadium of Light

Gillingham manager Neil Harris praised opponents Sunderland for capitalising on the late mistake at the back from his side.

The Gills had defended resolutely against the promotion-chasers and looked to be on their way to earning a point before Nathan Broadhead was allowed the chance to head in a 95th minute winner. His goal clinched a 1-0 win.

Jack Tucker was the man beaten to the ball late on, a moment of frustration for the defender after a superb performance prior to that.

“It was a bit of a kick in the nuts!” admitted the Gills boss.

“I thought Sunderland were excellent in spells of the game and really made it difficult for us to get out of our half, they showed their quality that they possess as a football club and there are a lot of questions asked about how they are playing at this level. You look at their front four, tens of millions of pounds they have moved for in their careers, they caused us all sorts of problems early on and we managed to deal with it, we managed to adjust, at times we looked really comfortable.

“We didn’t always give a threat ourselves because it is tough, I knew it was going to be a difficult game, I knew it was probably going to be our hardest challenge between now and the end of the season, obviously it is tough to take when you concede last minute and it is an avoidable goal for me, sometimes you have to say fair play to the opponent because they in spells played very well.

“It is tough, you guys (in the media) might have put him (Jack Tucker) down for man-of-the-match, both sets of press might have because he had to stand up to so much, but I said this to the group, not just aimed at Jack, to a lot of our young players if you want to compete against big clubs you want to compete at the