Gillingham won their first game of the season at the Priestfield on Saturday, despite Charlton having 23 attempts on goal, 12 of them on target.
Profligate finishing again cost Karl Robinson’s side dear. A bad day in the office was exacerbated late on when Ricky Holmes was needlessly booked for dissent.
It was the influential winger’s fifth yellow card of the seaon, and he will now be suspended from next Saturday’s game against Bury.
Robinson was able to name an unchanged team again, and Gillingham included former Addicks favourite, Scott Wagstaff, in their line-up.
Charlton started brightly, and Josh Magennis, Billy Clarke, Tariqe Fosu and Holmes all had early efforts.
But it was the Gills who got the ball in the net. Ben Amos tipped Sean Clare’s free-kick onto the crossbar, and Gabriel Zakuani headed the rebound in. But Zakuani was adjudged to be offside and his effort was ruled out.
The winning goal came ten minutes after the restart. Max Ehmer squared the ball to Tom Eaves, who steered it home from close range.
Like Plymouth, it was a case of three points squandered for the visitors. Though it was a poor game, and the Addicks were not at their best, they should have won the game.
The situation was made worse by a number of fans having tickets for seats that were meshed off, meaning their were too many fans than seats.
Meanwhile, a number of smoke bombs delivered onto the pitch in the second half saw the game have nine added minutes, all of which were successfully seen out by The Gills.
Karl Robinson was again disappointed that his team failed to take their chances. Here is what he said after the game:
”The goalkeeper got man of the match, but we didn’t take our chances and that, unfortunately, is the nature of the industry – we’ve got to score goals.
“We were the better team by a long way today, but fans don’t care about that, they care about winning.
“All we can do is keep doing the right things and make sure we keep making those chances.
“It’s been mentioned that we’ve not come back when we’ve gone behind this season and if that was the case and we weren’t creating chances, I would be very disappointed and I would start to look a bit deeper at some of the roots.
“I’m frustrated, but I can’t question my players. You go in there and talk to the players about what they’re looking for, but they’ve got to score,” said Robinson.
Gillingham: Holy; Lacey, Ehmer, Zakuani (Hessenthaler, 78), O’Neill (Ogilvie 72); Nugent, Byrne, Clare, Wagstaff (Parker 45); Wilkinson, Eaves.
Subs (not used): Arnold, Cundle, Nash, Starkey.
Goal: Eaves (54).
Booked: Ehmer 12 (foul), O’Neill 26 (foul), Nugent 64, (foul), Holy 81 (timewasting).
Charlton: Amos; Solly, Bauer, Pearce, Dasilva; Kashi, Forster-Caskey (Konsa, 81), Fosu (Dodoo, 68), Clarke (Ahearne-Grant, 81), Holmes; Magennis.
Subs (not used): Phillips, Jackson, Aribo, Sarr.
Booked: Kashi 44 (foul), Solly 84 (foul), Holmes 90 (dissent).
Referee: Graham Salisbury (Lancashire).
Attendance: 7,216 (2,358 Charlton).