Gills boss Steve Lovell has been talking to the media ahead of this weekend’s home game with AFC Wimbledon which comes off the back of a Checktrade Trophy hammering on the South Coast in midweek.

“Tuesday’s game at Portsmouth showed just how experienced their squad is compared to ours,” Lovell opened with.

“Yes, we did have a younger squad, but it would have been different if we hadn’t so many injuries at the moment.”

“Performances dictate our best team. We started the season well winning games and that was with everyone fit so you would have to say that that is my strongest team, because at the time it was the team we put out and we won the two games.”

“You put out players to perform and that’s what they’ve done and they’ve done it well without really getting the results that we’ve deserved at Millwall, against Sunderland and even at Walsall as well.”

“At Walsall we played well and didn’t get anything out of the game.  It’s a question of picking a team to do the job – I changed it last week at Barnsley because we’ve had injuries; Mark Byrne got injured, Regan-Cook got injured and this week Josh Parker will be away on international duty so that’s another change there!”

“That highlights what is thrown at you and you’ve got to choose a side and make the changes to meet the requirements of the game.”

“Josh being away with his country will give someone else a chance to play and if they play well and take advantage of that, then Josh will have to wait his chance to get back into the team – he’s made the choice to go and play for his country which is great, but I can’t wait for Josh as I’ve got a game Saturday which is more important for us than Josh and his international game.”

Checking on the rest of Saturday’s squad, Lovell told us, “Dean Parrett’s still a week off; Gabby (Zakuani) did something to his shoulder at Barnsley – he might be OK for the Rochdale game, but we don’t want to risk anything in case it makes it worse and Regan’s perhaps another two to three weeks off.  On the plus side, Mark Byrne’s training and should be Ok for Saturday!”

“You look at League table all the time, you can’t help it.  You look at the stats in the tables, but you don’t take any notice of them until you have to.”

“We’ll be going into the game on Saturday to win which will give us ten points and put us in ninth or tenth, it’s always a psychological thing isn’t it – it’s always nice to see you towards the top rather than the bottom!”

“We want to stay in the top half and if we win on Saturday, that’s where we’ll stay so we can all look at it on Sunday morning and be happy where we are.”

A month into the season and we asked the boss for his opinion so far.  “It’s a mixed bag really,” the Gills boss admitted.

“The way that we started and the way that we’ve been performing – unhappy because of the injuries that we’ve picked up and I think happy that in the League there’s only been one performance where we didn’t get going and we ironically got a point in that.”

“Walsall, Sunderland and even Barnsley were all tough games, but we should have got something out of the games.  It could be worse, but it could be better so we’ll accept where we are.  Six League games gone – another forty to go – it’s been a decent start, but we’ve now got to push on in the next month and get as many points as we can hopefully!”