Just hours after he was put in caretaker charge of Gillingham, Keith Millen has been talking to the local press and gave us his thoughts on an interesting 24 hours.

And KSN was there on what proved to be a troubled day for the League Two side after Neil Harris was given the sack.

“I certainly didn’t expect to be here talking to you,” Millen confessed. “I took the B team on Tuesday and turned up this morning (Thursday) for the staff meeting – we were told that that meeting maybe delayed.”

“The meeting did not happen as usual, and I was then asked to go and see Kenny Jackett in his office, and he told me what had happened – he asked me if I would become interim manager for however long it may be to allow the Club to start the process. That was my morning!” 

“I have been in this position a few times in my career (this will be Millen’s seventh occasion as interim/caretaker manager at a club – Bristol City twice, Crystal Palace on three occasions and the last time was ironically at Saturday’s opponents MK Dons). Like always the first day when things like this happens, it is a shock, it is a disappointment, and it does not really matter what I said to the players, it is a case of this has happened, this is football and the Club to do it for.”

“We really did not train much on Thursday – it was more about getting them out into the fresh air and get them home just to clear their heads really.”

“Hopefully, they will come in on Friday and try to focus on an important game on Saturday.” 

“I spoke to the senior players which I believe is important as they are the ones you need to speak to first. They normally are the voices in the dressing room and so trying to get that realtionship with a smaller group is obviously easier than talking to the whole dressing room.”

“I spoke to them as I believe that it is up to them to set the tone for the dressing room – I can oversee, but you want the players to drive it really. They understand the situation, so hopefully that will help us.” 

“I was not in the room when Neil told the players. I think it only right that the manager and the players do that on their own – it was not the place for me to be in there!” 

“I would agree that the toughest job that we have for Saturday is to get the players focused – they are fit, they are not really lacking in confidence despite the recent results as we created enough chances on Tuesday to have won the game.”

“In that respect, quite often when you take over in a position like this is when a team is struggling, and you have got to build confidence and build an identity to try and give them confidence to go and win a game.”

“So, I do not think that that will be at the top of my list – top I think will be to refocus them really on what their job is and go and perform on Saturday and go and get three points.” 

“I was hoping to play nine holes of golf on Friday but that’s gone out of the window now,” Millen joked lifting the mood of the room.

“I have had to cancel that. You just switch into a mode when you get the call, or I do, to what’s needed and I think that is one of the few advantages of me having done it before as you know what’s needed.”

“The first couple of times I did it (at Bristol City) it was like “what do I do next?” whereas now I’ve been involved enough to know what’s needed.” 

“I have been to all the home games this season and the fans have been great – the atmosphere has been fantastic. I would imagine that like the players, they will be shocked at the news – some may be thinking OK yes; some will be thinking no – you will always get that with the fans, but as a whole we need their support on Saturday.”

“It energises the players so I ask them now to really get behind the players – I always think that players performance stokes the fans up and it should not be the other way around. So hopefully our energy and attitude gets them behind us.” 

“This is not a crisis – it is a Football Club. And the biggest part of any Club is the fans and I think if we show the right attitude, the fans will get behind us like they have done!” 

“I can’t magic a win, but I can do everything that I can to give us the best chance of winning and putting a performance on and if the fans get behind us, Priestfield is a difficult place to come…”