For the first time since his return to Gillingham, Bradley Dack has been talking to KSN and the press, and it’s clear that the midfielder is itching to play a major role in the Gills games for the rest of season. 

Asked about his fitness levels, Dack told us, “I think I have been at one hundred percent now for about five or six weeks now. I have had nine or ten weeks of full training, so therefore I feel that now it’s just getting into the team, I guess!”

“I should probably have started both the games that were postponed (away to Chesterfield and home to Fleetwood) which was very disappointing!” 

“We have to stay in a positive mindset, there is a team every single season that comes with a late run! I am not saying that that is going to be us this year – we cannot say that as we haven’t won many games!”

“We have to build on the next game and the next game and try to put a run together – we are definitely looking up rather than down and hopefully we can put a run together and we’ll see what happens.” 

“We understand the fans’ frustrations, it’s frustrating for us as well as we want to put on performances for them. They travel away in their numbers as well and we are getting good numbers at home too so we do want to do well for them and the best for ourselves and help the club get to that level.”

“It’s difficult because they are frustrated and you can hear that in the games here at some points, and we need them to feel that they can get onboard with us – we all need to be together as one,” Dack told us before adding, “I think over the last few weeks that has been a little bit fractured, so that is something where we have to give the fans something to “get hold of” and get after us and hopefully we can do that.” 

We asked Dack about how he came back to Kent, eight years after a 23-year-old left Gillingham for Blackburn Rovers; he told us, “I wanted to stay at the highest level that I could and was talking to a few Championship clubs and there was a lot of waiting around.”

“Before we went into the summer, I felt that I needed a pre-season as I didn’t get one in 2023 as I signed late for Sunderland.”

“Unfortunately I ended up not getting one this year either because of wanting to stay at a higher level we had to wait and wait and wait before Andy Hessenthaler called me one morning and asked if I would be interested in coming back.”

“We got together and got to an agreement pretty quick, I think once I was told there was interest and I met Mark Bonner and came back to see the stadium and see a few of the boys and spoke to Max (Ehmer who along with Glenn Morris played with the 23-year-old Dack before his move), it pulled on the heart strings a little bit to try and get the club back to League One.”

“Everything else went to the side and one it was the Gills; it was a case of let’s do it!”  

Looking ahead to Saturday’s long trip to the North West to face Barrow. “It’s massively important that we try and get something at the weekend – obviously we are in the middle of a tough run!”

“I don’t think it’s not through not trying as everyone wants to win games and we know that we should be in a better place in the League, there’s no doubt about that but, sometimes it is hard to put a finger on what is going wrong. We have to snap out of it quickly and hopefully that will start on Saturday!”