Stephen Clemence hails ‘exceptional’ Gillingham players after win over Charlton

Posted Sunday, December 03, 2023 by PA

Gillingham boss Stephen Clemence hailed his side’s high standards after they cruised into the third round of the FA Cup with a 2-0 win over League One Charlton.

The Priestfield Stadium came alive in the 26th minute when former Charlton man Macauley Bonne, who made a move to the Gills in the summer, netted against his former club.

Timothee Dieng caught the Addicks defence sleeping again and drilled a low effort into the bottom corner four minutes later.

With a place in the third round secured for a second successive season, Clemence pointed to his side’s relentless work rate.

He said: “I thought we were outstanding from the start, we had a game plan to get after them, how to press them and the lads carried it out fantastically.

“When you start like that you need to make sure you get your nose in front and thankfully we did and to go and score a second soon after was fantastic.

“I thought in the second half we could have gone on and got a few more so that was the message at half time.

“The boys were absolutely fantastic today and they’ve set some high standards for us to keep up to.

“I thought we were in control, we still played some good football but our pressing game was absolutely fantastic. I thought they were all exceptional.

“From my point of view and the players’ we’re happy to be in the next round and we’ll see who we get tomorrow.”

It was a rather different tale for Michael Appleton’s men, who failed to reach round three for the second year in a row.

After an underwhelming display against League Two Gills, the Charlton boss criticised his side’s lack of effort.

He said: “That was a difficult one for me, we were second best in a lot of areas of the pitch.

“Early on in the game, there was probably four or five players who were always second to the ball, always caught between positions, didn’t play forward, weren’t aggressive enough and we paid the price.

“But even coming in at half time, we gave away a couple of poor goals which is one thing, but coming in at half time I’m always positive because we’ve got 50 minutes or so to try and get back into the game.

“We’re very strong normally in the second half of games but we just didn’t do enough.

“We had a lot of territory but I can’t remember the keeper making too many saves, don’t know how many times the ball come into the box and we weren’t there getting the first contact.

“It’s not one that will live long in the memory if I’m being honest.”