GILLINGHAM were cursing the “goal that never was” after City’s latest win at the Priestfield Stadium.

The home side were convinced they should have been ahead when Macauley Bonne’s first-half header was clawed away by Harry Lewis.

It proved a pivotal moment as the Bantams went on to claim a 2-0 victory in Kent for the second season running.

Gillingham midfielder Jonny Williams, who was close to joining City in the summer before changing his mind, felt the hosts were hard done to by referee Scott Jackson.

“We potentially had a goal chalked off,” he said. “We haven’t got the technology in this league on the watches to give us the goal – a lot of people were saying it was in.

“Sometimes you need the officials to be brave and give the goal.”

Boss Stephen Clemence added: “The boys thought it was in.

“It looks very close from the angle I’ve seen but it wasn’t given. You can’t do anything about that now.

“If that goes in, it might have been a different game.

“But we fell below our standards. I can accept getting beaten but not by conceding goals like we did – they were definitely avoidable.”

Clemence was fuming with the sloppy defensive play which allowed City to win the ball back for Jamie Walker’s opener.

And their problems were compounded when the wall jumped for Andy Cook’s blasted free-kick in the second half.

“That’s something that won’t happen again,” warned Clemence. “They’ve had two shots on target and both have ended up in the back of our net.

“There were moments in the first half when we were okay and we started the second half well. But that’s no consolation.

“We’ve got that Achilles heel. We haven’t created enough for my liking.

“It was a scrappy League Two game and the first goal was going to be vital. To give it away as cheaply as we did was disappointing."

Williams was jeered by City fans when he was subbed in the second half.

The Welsh international added: “We’ve struggled against teams lower than us this year and we’ve got to correct that.

“We’ve been very good when we’ve scored the first goal but we need to do a lot better when we go behind and the boys are well aware of that.

“It was a tough game. They were very direct and we gave them two goals.”