Adrian Pennock couldn’t hide his disappointment as Gillingham lost 4-1 at Rochdale on Saturday.

His side were to end the game with ten men as well with Zesh Rehman sent off for two bookable offences and The Gills now find themselves looking back into the League One relegation zone with seven games left to play this season.

Conceding four goals for the second time this week, Pennock feels certain players let themselves and the side down:

“It was a poor performance. People weren’t doing their jobs. You ask players to do things in training and in the first five minutes [we] get ripped to pieces.

“The goals we conceded were very poor and we’re giving teams goals and a leg-up in the first five minutes. I thought we responded well and we could have made it 2-1 but the second goal is just not good enough.

“We’ve got to go back to basics because we’re not doing them right. I’m bitterly disappointed.”

It’s at the back that Gillingham appear to have their biggest problem and with Rehman now suspended for Saturday’s game against Peterborough United, Pennock admits he is fast running out of options defensively:

“We lose Zesh Rehman and since I’ve been here I don’t think we’ve had the same four or three or five in defence, or the same team, and it does mess you up a little bit.

“Deji [Oshilaja] was [missing through] a groin injury – I thought he played very well on Tuesday [against Bolton Wanderers] but he came in on Thursday and he was feeling his groin so unfortunately he couldn’t play.

“We’ve got three fit defenders and that’s it at the moment. It’s a big disappointment, and we’re being tested.”

With so much still to play for between now and the rest of the season, Pennock is hoping his side can move on quickly from two damaging defeats:

“We’ve got to learn from it. We’re all in it together and we’ve got to stick together and move on.

“We just can’t keep relying on results [elsewhere] until the end of the season, we’ve got to worry about ourselves and get three points as soon as possible. I am 100% confident [of keeping Gillingham safe from relegation] – they are good honest boys.

“We’ve regrouped in there and we’ll really look forward to the game against Peterborough – it’s another massive game.”