Caretaker manager Steve Lovell admits he doesn’t know how much longer he will be in charge at Gillingham following a goalless draw on Tuesday night.

Taking charge of this third game since being appointed on an interim basis by chairman Paul Scally back on Monday 10th January following Steve Evans’ sacking, Lovell watched on as Gillingham fired blanks in front of possibly the lowest Priestfield crowd for a league game for some time.

The record books will show 3,213 were in attendance at Priestfield, but the reality was there were far fewer with all of the stands looking largely empty as Gillingham fans have started to vote with their feet.

Mired in a relegation battle and chairman Paul Scally unable to secure the necessary investment to take the club forward, Gillingham are a club in freefall and they are almost certainly going to start next season in League Two.

Nine points adrift of safety and having now gone a club record sixteen games without a win, the doom and gloom around the club is palpable.

Lovell took charge once again, but the former manager’s days have surely got to be numbered with Marc Bircham tipped to replace him.

Some Gillingham fans have suggested Lovell may be given until the end of the season with a new man coming in during the summer, but the former striker and manager admits even he doesn’t know how long he’s got left:

“I’m here until I am told otherwise. I will carry on doing what I’m doing, I’m enjoying what I’m doing and I like working for this Football Club.”

“It’s down to the Chairman to make that decision. Until he does, I will carry on.”

“I don’t know what is going to happen in the next week. I have still got to do my work; it’s an important time. Things could change.”

Having watched his lacklustre side fire blanks yet again, Lovell provided an update on some of his injured squad:

“Ben Reeves has done ligaments in his ankle and could be out for another three weeks.”

“Muzzy (Carayol) picked up an injury yesterday in training. Hopefully he will be fit and ready for Saturday. Dan Adshead is still injured, but still with us. I think he will be back within the next few weeks and that will give us another body to have around.”

All eyes now turn to Saturday’s home game against Oxford United with Crewe Alexandra coming to Priestfield next Tuesday night and Lovell is hopeful the side can see an upturn of fortune in the coming week:

“I thought Tom [Dickson-Peters] did okay when he went on. Saturday is a massive game again against Oxford, and Tuesday will be even bigger against Crewe. Let’s prepare and build for the weekend first, and take it from there.”

Reflecting on a game where Shrewsbury were there for the taking, Lovell conceded the side were down having failed to win yet again:

“The boys are all disappointed, but I take the positives out of it. We all want to win games, and we need to. We have 19 cup finals left.”

“We lacked a little bit of quality at times I think. We will keep working, keep grafting and hopefully the results will come.”

“The boys gave everything and that’s all you can ask. As the game went on we started to pick up, and we just needed something to fall for us. We were defensively solid.”

“I can’t fault the commitment. They didn’t hurt us at all. We had quite a bit of possession, mainly in the second half, but in the final third we didn’t produce what we have done in the previous two games.”

Gillingham look like a punch drunk side resigned to their fate now.

With Kyle Dempsey likely to join Bolton Wanderers in the next few days and no new faces set to come in, even out of form John Akinde could be allowed to leave for Colchester United to reduce the wage bill.

The feeling of looking to next season and writing this one off is all consuming around Priestfield and those that still go to games are starting to question whether they too should stay at home.