.....and whereas I hate seeing us lose, I am in no way as disappointed as some of our fans seemed to be at the end of the game.

We dominated the first half in what felt like one of our Premier League games this season, but in complete reverse: Gillingham just sat back in their half and we passed the ball around at will. It was so noticeable how much time our players were allowed on the ball, and I think that the possession stats were 70/30. It was also noticeable how the ball was being played to feet and not sent long all the time, with Damoir and Ralls getting a lot of the ball. Bennett missed a great chance and it just felt like a matter of time before we scored (I even remember saying to my son that Gillingham are bound to nick one, as we’d bossed the game so thoroughly)

The second half was much more even as Gillingham made a game of it and carved out a few chances including one that hit the bar, but even so we had enough decent chances to win it in the second half.

Mendez-Laing was excellent today, regularly beating his man and hitting the bar in the second half. Murphy was again frustrating in wasting some excellent possession and one really good chance.

So, we should have won in my opinion and were the better team (as we should be!) But we didn’t, paid for some sloppy defending, and (sadly) it is not such a disaster being knocked out of the Cup these days.