Gills boss Lovell hails ‘excellent’ Hanlan

Posted Sunday, February 24, 2019 by PA

Steve Lovell hailed Brandon Hanlan after Gillingham battled to a deserved 1-0 victory over an out-of-sorts Wycombe.

Regan Charles-Cook’s second goal in league football was the difference, converting Brandon Hanlan’s brilliant pass across the face of goal.

That was the limit of the visitors’ creativity but an 11th win of the season takes the Gills to 17th in League One – with Lovell now looking up, instead of down, in the table.

“We deserved at least a draw so to nick it at the end was the icing on the cake,” he said.

“We’ve been excellent in these last three games, we’ve got two wins out of them and the results will lift the club.

“You could see how much it meant to the players when they scored today – they really deserved it.

“Brandon Hanlan was excellent all game. He ran them ragged and I’m pleased that he could set up the goal for his mate.

“We want our players to make positive runs in the box and Regan’s done that for the winner.

“We’d like to think we’ve got enough games to get the points we need. This was massive ahead of a big March when we play a load of six-pointers against teams down the bottom of the table.

“We’re looking forward to it.”

Gillingham are now five clear of the relegation zone but Wycombe – who fell to their third straight defeat – could have levelled when Adebayo Akinfenwa twice shot at goalkeeper Tomas Holy from point-blank range.

The Wycombe striker, who previously had two spells with the Gills, had earlier fired over from eight yards after Dominic Gape flashed his pass across the face of goal.

Captain Matt Bloomfield had a shot well blocked by defender Luke O’Neill and Jason McCarthy missed the target after rushing to meet Nick Freeman’s cross – with their efforts eventually in vain.

“It’s a disappointing result but not a disappointing performance,” said Wanderers manager Gareth Ainsworth.

“We did everything but stick it in the goal and that’s the story of the game. I can’t remember them having a shot on target except the one that went in.

“If I’m being picky their lad stuck the cross in far too easily and they’ve scored from a yard out.

“We’ve had a lot of chances, some from a few yards out, and I felt the goal was coming.

“I’ll never know how on earth their goalkeeper has saved those chances (from Akinfenwa immediately after the goal) – I think both of them hit him on his head.

“He’s not known anything about those and that’s sometimes it goes that way.

“It’s unbelievable and sums up our luck. We’ve deserved more than that from this game.”