Luton Town 3 Gillingham 1

"NOT good enough" was the message from Gillingham boss Ronnie Jepson after seeing his side suffer another defeat on Saturday.

The Gills, who were missing several key players, were out-played for long periods and the hosts thoroughly deserved their win.

"I was disappointed and we never got out of the traps, which was similar to last week," said Jepson.

"I had to make changes at the last minute on Friday with Gary Mulligan, Simon King and Andy Pugh pulling out. We didn’t get Andrew Crofts back from international duty until Friday but even so we didn’t have enough sparkle.

"But I’m not making excuses or hiding behind anything – the performance wasn’t good enough."

In a torrid opening period for the visitors, they found themselves behind in the 17th minute when David Bell was allowed to cut inside and shoot beyond Simon Royce.

Paul Furlong should have doubled the lead soon afterwards but he shot straight at the keeper.

Out of nowhere the Gills levelled in the 22nd minute when makeshift centre-back Mark Bentley rose to head in Nicky Southall's corner.

The home side re-took the lead on 27 minutes when Royce found himself in no man's land, allowing Drew Talbot to find Furlong who scored from close range.

Luton put the game out of sight in the 80th minute when Matthew Spring scored from the penalty spot after Bentley was judged to have tugged at Paul McVeigh in the box.

Gillingham: Royce, Southall, Cox, Bentley, Armstrong, Cogan, Lomas, Crofts, Brown (Hamilton 40), Graham (Cumbers 85), Facey.
Subs Not Used: Stillie, Clohessy, Stone.
Attendance: 6,178.

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