Portsmouth 1 Gillingham 0

IN KEEPING with time-honoured tradition, Gills boss Stan Ternent wants his side to concentrate on the league after their brave efforts at Portsmouth in the FA Cup ended in a 1-0 defeat.

The Championship side held Pompey for the first half of the third round tie but conceded a goal to Ayegbeni Yakubu four minutes into the second half.

Ternent was convinced the Nigerian striker’s winner was offside but admitted that Portsmouth had deserved to win.

He said: "We rode our luck at times and we defended valiantly. We had one or two chances of our own as well and was pleased with the way we played against a good Pompey side.

"It would have been great to have a Cup run, especially from a financial point of view. But it’s fair to say that maintaining our Championship status is our main priority and we would gladly swap that for a bit of glory in the Cup.

"The pleasing thing is, though, if we can show the same sort of form we displayed against Portsmouth for the rest of the league season then I’m convinced we will get the eight wins we need to stay up.

"We’ve got 18 massive league games ahead of us so we need to forget about this defeat and get on with it."

Ternent had words of praise for his players, particularly Matt Bodkin, Chris Hope and Steve Banks.