text: Under-pressure Gillingham boss Steve Evans claimed his side had 'battered' Sunderland and missed out on what 'should have been our most comfortable win all season' after the Black Cats' nudged his side closer to the relegation mire.
  The volatile Evans also branded Elliot Embleton's rash foul on Jack Tucker 'absolutely horrendous', 'a leg breaking challenge', and worthy of 'three reds' rather than the single red card he received, as he sought to deflect attention from a fourth successive defeat in all competitions - and a record that now reads one win in nine league games, as they hover just above the drop zone.
  Evans watched his team squander the lead at the Priestfield Stadium, as goals either side of half-time from Aiden O'Brien and Tom Flanagan saw Sunderland come from behind to win 2-1 after Danny Lloyd's penalty had put the Gills in front.
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  Sunderland were below-par in the first half but improved in the second and, while they did need Thorben Hoffmann to produce a couple of excellent saves and for his defenders to make some crucial blocks, Gillingham's problem was that they did not have the quality to convert their chances.
  "Sunderland got battered," Evans told kentonline.
  "We made the best chances, played the best football, but got beat.
  "At time-up their gaffer said to me 'we got away with that' and there were Sunderland fans saying the same to me.
  "We dominated from start to finish.
  "They had the odd counter-attack and ball into our box but the two goals we gave away were disappointing, two easy crosses.
  "They have rode their luck, they have had blocks, they have had it off the line, they have had a penalty on John Akinde not given.
  "We should be winning it, it would have been our most comfortable win all season, but we didn't take our chances and we conceded two sloppy goals.
  "They will never get a battering like that again all season and go away with the points.
  "The boys have been good and the best team has got beaten. The best team, by a long way, got beat.
  "I have been there, I have been a manager in charge of teams that have been second best all day and won a game, you take it, because that is what good teams do and they are a really good team and with a good manager.
  "That is what they do, they find a way to win. They blocked things and got some decisions in their favour."
  Evans' bitter disappointment will have been made worse by the fact that Sunderland were able to defend their lead despite playing the final quarter of the match shorthanded when Embleton was dismissed for a challenge that Sunderland boss Lee Johnson said divided the officials over whether it was worthy of a yellow or a red card.
  Evans said: "He [Embleton] should get three reds shouldn't he?
  "It was an absolutely horrendous challenge. I don't know if a red is strong enough, it is horrendous, it is a leg breaking challenge."
  And Evans was even unhappy with the amount of injury time referee Lee Swaby added on when Gillingham were trying to force an equaliser, labelling it 'pathetic' and directing his criticism squarely towards the FA.
  He moaned: "I went to see the referee at the end and wanted to know why he allocated four minutes at the end.
  "He has warned the goalkeeper [Hoffmann] three times for time-wasting, we had the [five] substitutes, two goals and a sending off and he adds four minutes.
  "Listen to the words FA, pathetic decision four minutes."
  Source https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/sunderland-battered-challenge-worthy-three-21882275