GILLINGHAM Boss Steve Evans hit out at the EFL and Fleetwood Town over a lack of coronavirus testing.

Elsewhere in Sky Bet League One, Michael Appleton's Lincoln City moved to the top of the table, while Portsmouth and Peterborough United claimed impressive away wins.

Gillingham 0, Fleetwood Town 2

Steve Evans slammed the EFL for failing to provide coronavirus tests for Fleetwood players and believes Gillingham’s 2-0 defeat against Joey Barton’s side should have never gone ahead.

The Cod Army had played in midweek against Accrington Stanley, who then found eight players had tested positive for coronavirus, prompting fears that the outbreak may have infected members of Barton’s squad.

The Gillingham boss blasted the EFL – and Fleetwood – for failing to get their players tested.

“We’ve had the Accrington situation on Tuesday. The league could have done something about it. What did they do? Absolutely nothing,” the 57-year-old fumed.

“If any Fleetwood players test positive in the next three or four days people on the Football League board should resign immediately. Immediately.

“I think Fleetwood and Joey have a responsibility (to get their players tested). We don’t get tested any more. We’ve not been tested, other than individual players when they’ve got symptoms, since the Thursday before the start of the season. That’s neglect of duty from the Football League.

“I hope I’m not coughing and spluttering on Monday because I’m the person in the ground with the biggest problem – nearly 60 and overweight."

Barton said: "The nonsense had begun even before the game – they were trying to get it called off this morning.

“When I heard that I thought ‘great, you’ve just done my team talk for me’.

“We’ve got to comply with Covid protocols but we do so in as respectful a manner as we can with the opposition. Our protocols have been excellent.

“We’ve done everything we can to protect the wellbeing of everybody. Yes, we haven’t been tested, but we follow every single procedure.”

Lincoln City 1, Ipswich Town 0

Michael Appleton hailed Lincoln’s defensive record after claiming a 1-0 win over Ipswich.

The Imps climbed to the top of the League One table thanks to Jorge Grant’s penalty.

Town’s day got worse in added time when Jon Nolan was shown a straight red card for a reckless challenge on Harry Anderson.

Witney Gazette:

  • Lincoln City boss Michael Appleton (left)  Picture: Nigel French/PA Wire

Then, after a final whistle, Ipswich boss Paul Lambert was also shown a red card after angrily confronting the officials.

Appleton said: “That’s the fifth shutout we’ve had in the eight league games, which is pleasing.

“People will be there to knock us if we don’t do it so we have to keep doing the right things and stay humble.”

Both managers were left frustrated by some of the officials’ decision-making.

And Lambert did not hold back in his assessment of referee Kevin Johnson’s performance after the game.

Lambert said: “We didn’t lose to Lincoln today, we lost to the man in the middle.

“I haven’t seen anything like that in all my time in the game, it was incredible.

“I’m flabbergasted that’s the standard required for professional football because it’s not acceptable. I’ll be reporting him for sure."

Sunderland 1, Portsmouth 3

Joe Gallen thinks that Portsmouth are growing in confidence after watching an impressive performance secure three points at Sunderland.

The Pompey assistant boss looked on as the side made it four wins from five League One matches with a 3-1 win.

He said: “Away from home, we are scoring goals in the first half.

"Confidence is building and the formation change has helped us in terms of creating chances and scoring goals."

Sunderland manager Phil Parkinson has demanded an immediate improvement from his side ahead of Tuesday’s trip to Rochdale.

He said: “We can’t be flat because we have had a good start. There will be set-backs during the season. This is a knock for us.

“We need to make sure the performance is a good one from minute one until the last minute on Tuesday.”

Hull City 1, Peterborough United 2

Manager Darren Ferguson highlighted Peterborough’s refusal to give up as being a key factor in the 2-1 win at Hull.

Posh have now won five league games on the spin and are second in Sky Bet League One thanks to second-half goals from Jonson Clarke-Harris and Siriki Dembele.

Ferguson said: “I think this typified what we’re about in terms of having the desire to keep going.

“It was fantastic character from the players.

“In the first half we were nowhere near, but we were much better in the second half."

Hull had been top of the league, but boss Grant McCann remains optimistic there is still more to come from his players.

He said: “I know for a fact that this side is going to get better and better as the season goes on.

“We want to be right up there in the division. I can’t grumble from what we’ve delivered so far, but we need to keep pushing on.”

Northampton Town 0, Charlton Athletic 2

Charlton manager Lee Bowyer was bothered about one thing only and that was the three points after his side’s scrappy 2-0 victory over Northampton.

He said: “I don’t care what the game looked like and how pretty it was, the conditions were tough, the pitch was bobbly and the wind blew a gale but we got three points and that’s all I care about.

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  • Charlton Athletic's Jonny Williams (centre) and Alfie Doughty (right) celebrate Northampton Town's Jack Sowerby's own goal   Picture: Tim Goode/PA Wire

“That’s what I said to the players after the game because when you want to win promotion, these are the games that you have to win."

Northampton manager Keith Curle felt there was little in the game bar two sloppy goals from his side’s perspective.

“I’m always going to be disappointed when we haven’t won or got something out of the game because we’re in it to win games and compete,” he said.

“I thought today we did compete very well, not just in the first half but overall. You only have to look at their team sheet to see the quality they have but we restricted them to two opportunities, neither of which were earned by them."

Doncaster Rovers 1, Crewe Alexandra 2

Crewe boss David Artell felt his side did themselves justice in their 2-1 win at Doncaster Rovers.

Having been disappointed with aspects of his side’s performance in defeat to Sunderland in midweek, Artell felt Crewe showed more of what they are about against Doncaster.

He said: “Good teams don’t play badly two games in a row and, while we didn’t play football against Sunderland, we did today."

Darren Moore says his Doncaster side have no choice but to brush off the disappointment of seeing their winning run ended as they ready themselves for a quick turnaround.

“We’ve got to move on and we can’t harbour on it too much because we’ve got another game on Tuesday (at Plymouth),” Moore said.

Blackpool 1, MK Dons 0

Russell Martin said defeat at Blackpool summed up MK Dons’ season after Sullay Kaikai struck in the hosts’ 1-0 success.

Seasiders winger Kaikai met CJ Hamilton’s low cross and finished clinically midway through the second half to give the home side the win.

“They made it difficult by kicking it as far away as they could for the last 20 minutes,” said the manager.

Witney Gazette:

  • MK Dons boss Russell Martin   Picture: David Fleming

“We limited a team to two shots on target away from home and lost 1-0."

He added: “They were dead on their feet before they scored, but we let them off with a goal which is the story of our season so far.”

Tangerines boss Neil Critchley said: “MK Dons can cause real problems with the system they play and are a terrific football team but we restricted them to virtually nothing.

“The organisation and the work rate of our team throughout the 90 minutes was terrific."

Burton Albion 1, AFC Wimbledon 1

Burton boss Jake Buxton had mixed emotions as he saw his bottom-of-the-table Brewers have to settle for a point in a 1-1 draw with AFC Wimbledon.

Ryan Longman put the visitors ahead, but Kane Hemmings equalised less than a minute later.

“It is tough” Buxton said. “You are pleased that we got a point at home and it stops the rot in a way of conceding sloppy goals and losing games.

“We are pleased about that but we thought we did enough to win the game.”

Glyn Hodges was happy with a draw for his Wimbledon side in a game where he felt his side were a little below par.

“It is a point gained, definitely,” he said. “This is a hard place to come and we weren’t at our best."

Wigan Athletic 1, Plymouth Argyle 1

John Sheridan was pleased to see his Wigan side recover to claim a point at home to Plymouth.

The first 45 minutes was all Plymouth, who led at the break thanks to Ryan Hardie’s 34th-minute goal.

But the second period was all Wigan, who equalised 21 minutes from time through Will Keane, and had another ‘goal’ from Lee Evans disallowed.

“I don’t like saying it about my team, but I thought we were poor in the first half,” said Sheridan.

“We could easily have found ourselves two or three down, we were very fortunate to only be one behind at half-time.

“But again, I have to applaud the players for the way they came out in the second half."

Pilgrims boss Ryan Lowe felt his side allowed two points to slip through their fingers.

He said: "We know it’s tough against Wigan, they are a Championship team with some Championship players still in there.

“They did cause us a lot of problems in that second half, but I wanted to be two, three, four goals up by that point."

Shrewsbury Town 1, Rochdale 2

Rochdale manager Brian Barry-Murphy was impressed with this side’s effort after securing a 2-1 win at Shrewsbury.

First-half goals from Oliver Rathbone and Alex Newby set Rochdale on their way to three more away points following their midweek triumph at Burton.

Barry-Murphy said: “It felt very exciting I suppose because we were under so much pressure towards the end of the game.

“You think that was hard, but I thought for long spells of the game we were brilliant and, particularly in the first half, I thought we looked really dangerous every time we went forward."

Shrewsbury manager Sam Ricketts, whose side have lost back-to-back home games, said: “It’s a real hard one to sum up at the minute.

"Again, it’s a game we’ve dominated, and we’re not dominating possession playing out of our own box, we’re dominating possession generally in the opposition’s half.

“Twenty odd attempts at goal with only one (scored) is a problem, we need to be scoring more than that, but we’re giving teams cheap goals as well."