Defender Jack Tucker asks for Gillingham fans to stick with them despite losing run in League 1
05:00, 16 December 2021
updated: 16:46, 16 December 2021
Gillingham defender Jack Tucker has apologised for the team’s poor run of form and asked their supporters to keep the faith.
Last weekend’s defeat at lowly Fleetwood was Gillingham’s fifth in a row and despite missing some key men to injury the central defender believes those available are capable of achieving more than they have been doing.
He said: “We can’t thank the fans enough, every week they follow us far and wide, obviously it doesn’t get much longer than Fleetwood and I am sure it wasn’t a great journey back. We can only apologise for this run we are on and ask them to stay with us and keep the faith with us.
“We are doing everything we can to get out of this situation that we are in and hopefully we can start paying them back with some performances and results soon.”
Bottom side Crewe were next up for the Gills at Priestfield this Saturday but that game has now been postponed.
The Gills lost 2-1 at Fleetwood last time out.
There was disappointment they didn’t get a penalty awarded, after a foul in the box on Olly Lee, but Tucker believes they need to focus on themselves first.
He said: “Nobody is perfect, referees make mistakes like we do as players, it is unfortunate that we have had two what we thought were nailed on penalties not go our way [they were denied a blatant penalty in a 1-0 defeat to Portsmouth the previous weekend] but that is the referee’s job. We can try and just keep getting in those positions.
“We can’t rely on referees to make decisions to pick up the points, we need to look closer to home, do a bit more ourselves to try and get some points on the board.
“When you are scrapping down the bottom end of the table it is a lot harder to get these decisions to go your way and it does feel like the whole world is against you at times but it is not a time to start feeling sorry for ourselves and feeling this is over. There are a lot of football games to be played between now and the end of April.
“We need to look at ourselves, we know where we are in the table, it is not good enough for the players that we have out there. We have to look at ourselves physically and inside, that heart to go out there and do what you have to do to bring points home.
“We know how hard it is. We have a lot of lads who have been in these scraps down at the bottom before and we will look to their experiences and they can try and help us through because I am sure we can get out of this patch but we need to do it sooner rather than later.
More on the Gills;
“We have 11 players who should be capable of winning a game of football out there. We are all good players, we have shown that in past seasons and it is finding that belief. Nobody likes to be losing every week and we need to start believing, there is obviously not a lot of confidence because we are not winning but we need that inner belief from deep down and you can only do what you can do.”
Individual errors have been proving costly and Tucker admitted he lost his man for the second crucial goal against Fleetwood, headed home following a short-corner set-piece.
He said: “I am accountable for that (second goal), I am disappointed as that turned out to be the crucial goal, that is on me and I apologised to the boys, I should be doing better on that front but I will hold my head up and try and do better in the future.”
