Lee earns gritty Gills second tilt at the Cats

GILLINGHAM boss Steve Evans was not entirely happy with a draw on Wearside after Olly Lee’s early second-half goal cancelled out Aiden McGeady’s opener.

Despite the Gills upsetting the odds to earn another crack at Sunderland, the jovial Scot believed his side should have won at the first time of asking.

“On the basis of 90 minutes I’m not happy with a draw,” he revealed. “Their goal was a deflection, my goalkeeper says that.

“We have to have belief and character here and we could have won the second half more than 1-0.

“We had chances to win it, but we do battle again in 10 days and it will be as tough as it was today.

“It all worked second-half for us, it was the best we have played on the road this season.”

The Black Cats took a 15th-minute lead when McGeady’s low shot from the edge of the area seemed to be routine for keeper Jack Bonham, but he misjudged the roll of the ball and it slowly went under his dive.

The Gills almost levelled when home centre-half Jordan Willis headed on a free-kick against one of his own posts.

But they did get all square after 46 minutes. From a freekick 22 yards from goal, Lee’s firmly struck dead ball was straight at goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin.

The Scottish international had the ball in his grasp, but inexplicably he spilled it and the ball apologetically trickled over the line.

Both sides had identical chances to win it – first Luke O’Nien failed to connect with a Chris Maguire ball across the face of goal, before Lee also missed his connection to get on the end of a Mark Byrne ball.

Sunderland boss Phil Parkinson has called on his players to show more mental strength at the

Stadium of Light.

“Jon is very disappointed with his mistake, an unusual error,’’ Parkinson said. “It does happen, you concede a bizarre goal and it knocks you too much.

“Now every player had to make more of it and make sure we go on to win the game by everyone doing a bit more.

“We spoke at halftime about them coming out with a more aggressive style of play – we lost headers, challenges straight away.

“You have to respond better than we did today.”