Fuming Gillingham boss Mark Bonner labelled Accrington’s winner a “disgrace” after his side’s stoppage-time 2-1 defeat.
The Gills, who were top earlier this month, suffered their third straight defeat at Priestfield.
Armani Little broke the deadlock for the hosts before Ben Woods levelled on the hour.
Gillingham looked the most likely to win it before Burnley loanee Dara Costelloe’s fourth goal in three games stole the spoils right at the very end.
Bonner groaned: “We are as angry and frustrated as you could imagine we would be, losing late, but probably the team that was going to win it was them.
“We gave them too many chances in the second half, way too easy to create a chance against. The second goal is a disgrace from us.
“It’s a disgrace. It’s a free-kick, deep in the pitch, and we don’t head it. And then we’re so easy to work through.
“If you look back at the earliest part of the season where we were so hard to create a chance against, now we’re giving up goals.
“Grimsby ran all the way through the middle of the pitch, Crewe ran all the way through us, soft, too easy to break, too open in the games.
“You try and chase it but if you leave yourself that vulnerable and you don’t defend really, really simple moments, you give the team a chance. They had too many chances in the second half.
“They play in a way that can make it quite a chaotic game, quite a stretched game as we said, so it’s no shock there’s quite a lot of chances at both ends.
“When we go one (goal) up here, you wouldn’t expect for us to be as easy to play against. We went one up and we started the second half well, scoring a brilliant goal, but the period after that, we just let their team in the game.
“We don’t take control of it. It’s like we’re just happy our game might be done now because we’re one up.
“It’s nonsense. It’s absolutely nonsense. Play to win the game, play to score the next goal, play with some intensity and some character and keep going.
“We haven’t done it. We haven’t done it well enough again.”
Accrington boss John Doolan was proud as punch after his side secured a first win over the Gills since 2020.
But most importantly it was a victory which saw Stanley climb out of the drop zone.
“It’s a brilliant win, I’m really pleased for the lads,” said Doolan. “I’m really proud of the character they showed to keep going.
“I can’t fault the way we went about it. I can’t fault anything or start nitpicking. I’m just so happy for the lads in that dressing room.
“They asked a lot of questions; the whole backline, back five. I was pleased to get over the line. It’s massive for confidence.”
After a barren start to life at the club, Costelloe has hit his straps.
Doolan added: “People don’t see what we see day-to-day.
“We signed him from Burnley for a reason because we knew what he did for Burnley in their 21s and he’s played in the Championship.
“We knew that with the chances he was getting that he was always in the right areas and right places and he wasn’t executing. In the past few games he has done that, so you will see that.
“It will do his confidence the world of good. I’m so happy for him because he’s a great lad, Dara.”
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