As Gillingham prepare to welcome Fleetwood Town to Priestfield this weekend in the second of five successive home games in three competitions, boss Steve Lovell has been reflecting this week on arguably his side’s best half of football played by the Gills in his tenure.

“Even in the first half on Saturday we had our moments and could have had the half time lead. Three or four players were just coming back from injury and I think that they were finding their feet – sometimes it’s a psychological thing that you’ve got to get over and having the confidence to do things.”

“I thought that as the game went on Regan (Charles-Cook), Brandon (Hanlan) and Billy (Bingham) grew into the game and that was lovely to see because that was something like the players we had at the start of the season. And with them coming in and doing a good job really cemented the midfield area!”

“Hopefully we can continue that sort of form from the first whistle on Saturday against a very good Fleetwood side.  The next stage is to get another three points at home – they’ve had a decent start to the season, but we’ll go out and try to perform like we did in that second half last week all the way through the game.”

“And if we do that, we should get another win under our belts, but we’ve still got to work hard and win your battles and be well prepared for them coming down and being confident and trying to turn us over.”

The visitors from the Fylde coast will present the Gills with different problems to Bradford, but Lovell said. “We know what they’re going to be about – they’re going to be hard working, they’re going to be well organised and they’ve got some good players.”

“It’s going to be no different to any other side that we play against – it’s about us and the way we perform and as I’ve always said since I’ve been here, it’s our performance that counts! So, if we can work hard on both sides of the ball then we’ll be fine.”

“We’re looking forward to it and it would be lovely to get a bit of a run going especially with the run of home games that we’ve got coming up in the next few weeks including the FA Cup. So, the next three or four games will be great to push our season on.”

Reflecting then on his actions to send some players home, the Gills boss said, “I did what I did with the players last week (who were sent home), as if you’re going to move forward then you’ve got to sort yourselves out, as there’s only so much us as managers and coaches can do for them.”

“We can help them on the football field – we can help them technically and tactically, but psychologically is something that they have to do for themselves and a lot of the things that I’ve spoken to players about – it’s all about what’s up in their heads, because physically they’re professional people and can run, they can head a ball, they can kick a ball, so there’s no reason why they shouldn’t do what we’ve been training with them and what we coach.”

“But if they can’t do it, it has to be down to them and so it has to be psychological! So they just have to sort themselves out and once they have, they will be worthy to come back here and play for me!”

“Josh Parker has come back into train this week and could be in the squad for the game, and touch wood,” said Lovell tapping the desk in front of him, “only Callum Reilly is missing injured and missing for Saturday.”