Jepo: It was a game of two halves

By Jack Nolan
August 14 2006

Gillingham boss Ronnie Jepson talks to BBC Radio Kent, on his frustration of the result after leading by two goals after thirteen minutes. Ronnie talks about the positives out of the game, and his views on goalscorer Dean Windass.

The Gills lost 4.2 after three second half goals for Bradford. The Gills did originally took a two goal advantage through a well worked goal by Mark Bentley and a superb strike by Mickey Flynn. Speaking about the game Jepo said, "It's very frustrating because the first half performance was, until the last five minutes of the first half, it was good. We had plenty of ball, they weren't really causing any problems, I thought we might have gone on to get a third the way we were playing, but the two halves were so contrasting it was untrue.

"I'll speak to them (the team) tomorrow morning, when we're in at the training ground. We'll have a chat, a few home truths, and we'll take it from there. If you have a look at the first half on the video you'd be quite happy. If you looked at the second half, you'd be pulling your hair out, and we've got to find out the reasons why. It was a similar second half at Brighton, we took the foot off the gas, and again here today."

Talking about the positives from the game, Jepo told BBC Radio Kent, "Two great goals, we started off well and really took it to the game ... he (Matt Jarvis) put in a good showing, but I thought he faded in the last 15 minutes, but he'd done a hell of a lot of work. We switched him to the right to try and have a go at the left back, because they'd obviously brought the lad on to stop Matty over there, but we lost the shape, we stopped passing the ball, and there was a nervousness about us. So we couldn't get the ball to Matty in the right areas where we wanted."

Kelvin Jack was forced to make Jupp take his goal kicks at one stage of the game after once again suffering from his knee injury. Speaking about Jack Jepo said, "He had a bang on his knee again and it is a concern, so hopefully this week I'll have a goalkeeper in."

Dean Windass found the net twice against the Gills, the 37 year old veteran striker equalised for the Bantams forcing home a rebound after Jack parried his penalty, then gave Bradford the lead 10 minutes from time. Speaking about strikers Jepo said, "Strikers like that in this league are worth their weight in gold, but the sad fact of life is we can't afford strikers like that, so we have tio go with what we can afford, and to get a striker who will score 20 goals a season is going to cost you money, and it's going to cost you wages."

Next up for the Gills is Northampton at Priestfield. The Cobblers are yet to claim their first League 1 victory this season, and will be looking to do so when travelling down to Priestfield.