Lovell hails Eaves’ response

Posted Sunday, September 30, 2018 by PA

Gillingham manager Steve Lovell hailed the impact of Tom Eaves after the substitute scored a late equaliser in the 2-2 draw at Shrewsbury.

Second-half goals from Lee Angol and Ollie Norburn had cancelled out a half-time lead given to the visitors by Brandon Hanlan.

But striker Eaves, facing a club where he twice had loan spells earlier in his career, had the final word with a well-taken last-minute strike to ensure the points were shared.

“Tom makes an impact when he starts as well,” said Lovell. “It’s just sometimes that inconsistency.

“I said to him before the game, ‘you know the reason why you’re not in the team at the moment’. I did it last year and sometimes it’s nice to take a little bit of a break, a little bit of a back seat, and you come back refreshed.

“It’s funny, it’s ironic that he went on and got the goal.

“Tom brings us something different which the opposition centre-halves don’t like and he did it. I thought he took his goal really well, a really good finish and I’m pleased for him, really pleased for him.”

Lovell was pleased with the character his side showed after Norburn’s late goal to hit back and end a run of four League One defeats in a row.

“Two-one down in the 87th minute, you’re thinking ‘here we go again’,” he said. “But the boys showed great character and great spirit and dug in and had a go and got the point.

“I’m pleased for them because they’ve kept going through a difficult time that we’ve gone through and it showed today that they’ve all got heart and they all want to do well.

“That’s the big thing, that’s all you can ask of them is to go out there and give everything and that’s what they’re doing, so I’m pleased with a point.”

Shrewsbury were closing in on a second win of the season when midfielder Norburn fired them in front and being unable to hold on to their advantage with time running out left manager John Askey frustrated.

“Disappointed, angry, all the emotions you would expect from doing so well to get ourselves back into the game and then to score late on,” he said. “It’s a game that we should have won.”

As for the manner of the late Gillingham equaliser, Askey added: “I spoke about it before the game, I spoke about it at half-time, about playing with desire and aggression, and sadly their goal came from us not showing enough aggression, not showing enough nous.

“The ball should have been knocked 30, 40 yards further forward and then I think it was about three tackles that we didn’t win.

“When you’re a goal up with minutes to go, it isn’t good enough. It’s not through lack of ability, it’s not through tactics or anything like that. It just comes down to a bit of desire and that will to win and sadly in that last minute we were lacking.”