Former Gillingham striker Steve Lovell is loving being back at the club and working under Peter Taylor.

Lovell returned to Gillingham in January to become a Youth Coach, working alongside the likes of Darren Hare and Mark Patterson to bring the club’s younger players through.

It’s Lovell’s second spell at the club in a staff capacity, having previously held the role of Community Officer some ten years ago, whilst becoming a fan’s favourite scoring 104 goals in 275 games between 1987 and 1992.

The former Welsh international striker went on to manage Sittingbourne (twice), Gravesend & Northfleet, Hastings United and Ashford Town after he retired from playing, but now having been back at Priestfield for four months, Lovell is loving working under Peter Taylor:

“I was really pleasad that Peter was given the job for the next two years and even though I’ve only been back at the club for a few months, I’ve really enjoyed working with him.”

“Hopefully we can push on next year and the first team can move up that league and get us up to where we deserve to be.”

Having seen some of the younger players coming through the system, Lovell believes there are some exciting prospects at Gillingham:

“I think Darren Hare and Bryan Bull have done a magnificent job producing these players from around Kent and the boys I’ve been working with on a daily basis have been talented lads and we’ve got another group coming through next year.”

“It bodes well for the future of the Academy and with youngsters like Aaron Millbank coming through and making his first team debut in the last game of the season.”

“That’s thirty players that have come through since 2003 from the Academy and that’s fantastic for the club in general.”

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