Manager Gareth Ainsworth admitted that even he was surprised at how badly his Gillingham team performed on Saturday.

He branded their performance “not good enough by a long shot” after the Gills were beaten 3-1 at Accrington Stanley on Saturday.

The Gills boss admitted his side were second best in the League Two clash.

Ainsworth had kept the same team that thrashed Rotherham United 4-1 the previous weekend, but his players failed to reproduce that performance as Accrington dominated and could have won by more.

“We weren't good at all,” said the Gills boss. “I'll have to look into the reasons why that was. Firstly, I'll look at myself, the team selection and tactics that we employed, but we haven't changed really from the good run that we've been on.

“What I looked at was us losing duels, losing tackles, losing runs, losing headers, all the things, the fundamentals that you have to have in League Two.

“League Two is a game of transitions; they're putting us in behind, and then we're clearing, and then they're getting on the next one better than us.”

Gillingham went behind after just 11 minutes following a mix-up between goalkeeper Ollie Wright and midfielder Armani Little. As they dallied, Accrington pounced through Stefan Mols.

Their other two goals came from corners delivered by Mols and headed in by Josh Woods.

The Gills’ goal came from Omar Beckles shot but even that went down as an own goal as Ainsworth’s side finished the match without an effort on target.

Ainsworth said: “The first goal is a bit of a calamity and then the two [conceded from] corners [was] terrible marking from us.

“We've got to make sure that we're right on that, but they could have had a couple more. They hit a post and they had a couple of shots.”

Ainsworth was concerned by their lack of threat despite twice turning to the bench to try and make things happen.

“We didn't look like scoring,” he said. “That was the worrying thing for me. We didn't look like we were going to get back in the game.

“When I put Tom Eaves on at the end, we failed to reach him with any quality. We were still trying to play a little bit too much and I'm saying, ‘Go direct, do an Accy, get in behind these, let's put them [under pressure]’, but we just didn't seem to be able to do that.

“The body language wasn't great. They looked a bit tired and laggy, these boys, and we've got to pick them up now for Tuesday because that's the next game now. Put that one to bed quickly but, yes, that was not good enough by a long shot.”

Despite the disappointing display, Ainsworth insisted he still had faith in the team he had selected following their impressive win at Rotherham.

He said: “I believe in these boys and I still believe in them and I'm putting that down to an off day.

“Like I say, I'll look at myself and hopefully the players will look at themselves and we can all come back in Monday morning ready to go against Port Vale [on Tuesday].”

The manager was particularly unhappy with the two goals conceded from corners, having put considerable work into defending set-pieces.

“We work hard on set-pieces and defending set-pieces and that hurts me personally when that goes in, but they seem to win four or five or six set-pieces and they've got a lot more set-pieces than us, which usually we're doing it to the other team. We're usually the ones aggressing and getting corners and getting free kicks and that.

“You've got to give them credit, they were the better team and I hate saying that, but they were.”

Ainsworth was also critical of the reaction to the opening goal.

He said: “The body language didn't look great after the first goal and that's a worry for me, so I've got to put that right.”

The Gills boss acknowledged that Accrington had deserved their victory, praising their work rate and ability to make life difficult for his side.

“I'll fight and I'll scrap. I told them, you come up to the north west, you're going to be up against it. We fight and we scrap and that's what Accy did better than us.

“There was no clear-cut, fantastic moves that tore us apart or anything. It was basic, turn them, get on their clearances, win the second ball, go forward again and it was sort of wave after wave and that's what you get at Accrington away.

“They're good, they run hard, they work hard, they fight and scrap for their football careers here, I know that and that looked like the team that beat us.”