Eaves hits hat-trick to silence doubters
GILLINGHAM boss Ady Pennock was delighted to see hat-trick hero Tom Eaves silence his critics in a six-goal thriller with Southend United.
Eaves was barracked by sections of the Gills support during the first half at the Priestfield Stadium.
And Pennock was thrilled to see the striker respond by scoring a tasty trio of strikes.
“In the first half Tom was getting some stick from his own fans so it was nice to keep them quiet,” said Pennock.
“I told him not to worry about it at half-time and that we believed in him.
“It’s us against the world at the moment and we have that siege mentality.
“It was good to score a goal because that will shut a few people up and we thoroughly deserved something from the game, that’s for sure.
“We made a change early on but I always had a plan B before the game because I was a little bit worried about their full-backs getting forward and it worked much better for us.”
Southend were on top for the majority of the first half and took the lead in the 20th minute when Ryan Leonard hooked the ball home.
But Gills hit back at the start of the second half with Eaves heading home a right-wing cross from Mark Byrne in the 56th minute before he nodded home a left -wing cross from Connor Ogilvie just seven minutes later.
The Shrimpers immediately equalised with Michael Kightly volleying home and they regained the lead in the 73rd minute when Simon Cox netted after Theo Robinson had hit the crossbar from 20 yards.
But Robinson then brought down Byrne in the box, enabling Eaves to complete his hat-trick as he fired home at the second attempt after seeing his initial effort saved by Mark Oxley.
And Southend boss Phil Brown was left fuming at his side.
“I thought it was rubbish, absolutely rubbish,” said Brown.
“The game should have been over at half-time. It should have been 3-0 or 4-0 and we have to put teams to bed when we’re carving them open.
“It was two points dropped last week against Plymouth and it’s two points dropped again.
“This is a bad day at the office and it’s down to the players’ mentality.
“Unless that changes we will be an also ran of a team this year and we have to stop conceding rubbish goals.”