It wasn't even a penalty, fumes Miller

GILLINGHAM boss Mark Stimson described referee Keith Stroud's decision to award Aston Villa a late penalty in their 2-1 FA Cup defeat as "harsh".

James Milner got the winner 11 minutes from time after Adam Miller was judged to have fouled Ashley Young in the box.

Stimson told BBC Radio Kent: "Having seen it I think it was harsh but it's a lesson to learn, unless you're going to get the ball then stay on your feet.

"It's a frustrating result but the performance was very encouraging."

Meanwhile stand-in captain Miller added: "If it [the penalty] looked soft, believe me it was soft. Doing the right thing isn't always in favour of the big teams and the big names.

"For him [the referee] to give that was so disappointing, not only for myself but for the boys who worked so hard.

"He [Young] moved it to the side and as he took it past me I knew I wasn't going to get to the ball and he knew he wasn't going to get to it either.

"It wasn't even a challenge, it was just making numbers up and trying to cover areas."

Stimson added: "You have to be careful when you're defending in your area.

"If you're going to go for the ball you've got to be 100% otherwise you give the decision to the referee and sometimes they do get them wrong.

"It was a good performance because we had Stuart Lewis at right-back and Mark Bentley at centre-half playing out of position.

"They did extremely well, you wouldn't have known they hadn't played there very often.

"The rest of the team played like I know they can and it was good that they did that for themselves against a top side.

"With the TV cameras there it was nice for them to go home and sit back and be proud."

Miller said he was also pleased with his team's effort: "Some people maybe thought we weren't going to turn up but I think everyone put a great stint in, their work ethic was brilliant.

"It's mad because after playing the in-form team in the Premier League against players like Ashley Young and Stilian Petrov, we're disappointed, it's crazy."

Gillingham are currently 10th in League Two and Stimson hopes their performance against Villa will inspire his side in the promotion race.

"We've got to take this into the league form now," he added.

"If we can perform like we have for the remainder of the season I think we will be up there at the end of the season pushing for what we all want.”

Article courtesy of www.bbc.co.uk/kent