Gillingham boss Steve Lovell was left questioning the character of his players following Saturday’s home loss to Walsall.

The Gills slumped to a 3-0 defeat, leaving them just one point off the League 1 relegation zone.

Gills’ home crowd made their feelings known, booing the players off at the end of the game.

Lovell, speaking about his players, said: “I won’t question their effort. The big thing I am questioning is, are they strong enough characters to get through a phase that we are going through?

“You have to take the criticism, everyone was happy when we beat Cardiff (in the FA Cup), everyone can take that, that’s easy. But this is where now they need to be strong.

“It’s a terrible defeat for us, a defeat we deserved because of the way we gave them the goals.

“I am not going to get carried away with this because we have been on a decent run.

“It was a bad day at the office but it is how they bounce back from a defeat and they have done it before. They will do it again.

“They are disappointed and they all know that they haven’t done themselves any justice.”

The Gills were two goals down after just 19 minutes.

Lovell said: “We started the game sloppy, certain people were losing the ball, running with it when they shouldn’t, things didn’t happen but you have to stay in it.

“If it stays 0-0 we have a chance of nicking one but we gave them the goals. We deserved to lose because of it.”

Lovell felt his team were playing to the crowd, rather than what they had been trained to do.

He said: “The crowd are going to vent their anger. I don’t blame them.

“There was nothing for them to cheer about first half, that is where the players have to be stronger and stick to our beliefs and what we want to do and not to be swayed by what people are saying in the crowd.

“I don’t want to get the ball and just tonk it forward.

“I want us to try and play a bit of football. That was the disappointing thing in the first half, those people were shouting about getting the ball forward.

“Our players were just booting it forward and it was coming straight back. I said to them in the second half they have to play the way we want to, not what others want us to play.”

The Gills are now perilously close to the drop zone.

“All I can do is work on our team to try and win as many points as we can,” said Lovell.

“It is tight down there, very tight, it is a battle. It’s one we have been in before and one I have been in with other managers here.

“I know what to expect and what is needed to get out of it but we can’t give goals away at any level.”