Gillingham boss Neil Harris admitted Bolton Wanderers were deserved winners at Priestfield on Saturday but questioned why his team's levels dropped.

The visitors went infront with a great strike from Aaron Morley and extended their lead after Dan Phillips had been sent off for the Gills. Bolton left as 3-0 winners.

• Report: Gills 0 Bolton 3

“I don’t want to lose games at Priestfield but Bolton deserved to win the game,” said the Gills boss.

“We have come off the back of a really strong performance at Lincoln (winning 2-0 last week) and a really good result. We deserved to win that game and we had a positive week, the atmosphere in the stadium before the game was really good at the start. We started well, on the front foot, could gave got infront.

“There are some good sides in this division, we are where we are for a reason over the course of the season. We are trying to rescue the season, we have done brilliantly up until now and this is just a set-back for us. It is a harsh set-back to lose 3-0 at home infront of your own fans in a game you think is winnable.

“They got themselves infront with a really good goal, 25 yards into the top corner, you can’t stop them.

“We had chances, their build-up play was excellent, they played a bit of risk and reward with the ball, committed people forward but they played extremely well and got into good areas, I just thought maybe our levels were off and I will have a look at why, look at the training in the week and how hard we worked, maybe too hard, but we got things wrong tactically as well without the ball.

“As good teams do, they find a way to hurt you, going in at half-time we regrouped, changed the shape slightly, I thought second half we looked a lot better, a lot more coherent as a team and no issues. I felt we looked like the stronger team before the red card and that obviously changed the complexion of the game after that.”

Harris had no complaints with the red card for Phillips, who was sent off after picking up two cautions.

He said: “The only question was, leading up to the first yellow card, was the ball out? It was right infront of me and I thought it was out but that has gone, it was a late challenge, a yellow card. Second yellow, disappointment for me, it is a coming together, is he stopping progress? Possibly.

“I probably can’t argue with that but what I can argue with is that just before that, leading up to it we got a corner, first contact is ours and second contact Vadaine Oliver heads it when Jack Tucker was about to volley it. Jack’s learning curve as a youngster is that he has to call for the ball, if he shouts for the ball, Vadaine moves out of the way. Where it goes I don’t know but the ball doesn’t end up down our end of the pitch and a yellow card for Dan Phillips.”