Evans: In the second half, the Cats had a little spell
Steve Evans has slammed the decision to award Sunderland a first-half penalty in the draw with Gillingham – but was proud of his side’s performance on Wearside.
The Gills twice came from behind to salvage a point at the Stadium of Light, having enjoyed long spells of pressure in the game.
But Evans was left furious by the decision to award Sunderland a first-half penalty for a foul on Aiden McGeady – which came after a long spell of pressure from the visitors.
Gillingham twice hit the woodwork during the clash and could arguably have taken more from an impressive away performance.
And while disappointed it wasn’t more, Evans was happy to take a point back to Kent.
“We’ll take the point, the performance was the main thing,” he said.
"We were decent, we battled hard.
“We got back into the game, Alex MacDonald’s is a good strike, we hit the underside of the bar and were totally dominant.
“We had a penalty given against us, it’s a shocking decision.
"In the second half they had a little spell. For 10 minutes they were the better side but didn’t make a chance.
"We changed the system, Tyreke Johnson puts a brilliant all in, the flick from John Akinde was excellent and it was a fantastic finish from Jordan Graham.
“We played very well in spells, we make the long journey back to Kent with real disappointment that we don’t go back with all three points. The players gave us everything.”