Goalkeeper Glenn Morris is already looking forward to the new season having agreed a new one-year deal with Gillingham. 

The 40-year-old keeper shared the number one position with Jake Turner and has agreed to extend his contract at Priestfield for at least another year and spoke to KSN about his new deal and admitted how excited he is as he prepares for his twenty-fifth season as a professional.

“Really pleased to get everything sorted so quickly and get it done! Means I can get rested before the start of pre-season and the whole of next season and get myself in the right shape and mindset to go again.” 

“Jake started last season and we got off to a flyer, and I had to sit and wait for my chance. Unfortunately, he got injured and it gave me the chance to come in and managed to keep my place for a while!”

“I felt as though I was training really well at that point – I think it was difficult for the manager to leave me out, as I was training well and think I was doing well!” 

“I do not feel as old as I am! I know that people say it sometimes, but I genuinely don’t feel that way and generally feel as good as I have been really.”

“I trained probably as well as I have done last season – it is strange as I think most people are more het up on my age than I am!”

“I do not see it that way, but I can understand why they look at it as it is there and is a fact that not many people carry on playing this long, but while I can and feel as good as I am, I do not see any reason to stop!” 

“We were all disappointed with the way last season ended, but we had a great start which added to the pressure maybe.”

“It is a difficult league and there are no guarantees to get out of it – from where we came from the year before is a massive improvement.”

“It is not what the Football Club wants to do, and I get that, but still, I do not think the season was a disaster – it was a season going in the right direction, and if we can improve that much again, then we will all be very happy!” 

“Sometimes you do look too far ahead as players thinking we’ve got to do this or we’ve got to do that, but I know it’s boring, if we just concentrate on winning the next game of football, everything else will take care of itself – maybe the pressure sometimes can get to players for whatever reason, whether it should or shouldn’t – maybe there was that added pressure last year and that may have been a reason for not quite getting over the line.” 

Bonner will be the fifth manager Morris has played under at the Club in his two spells after Peter Taylor, Justin Edinburgh, Neil Harris and Stephen Clemence and we asked the Gills stopper about playing for a boss who is two years his junior.

“I honestly don’t know if I’ve done that before,” Morris laughed thoughtfully.

“Maybe it’s a first for me, but it won’t be a problem as he’s very experienced in himself, so it’s not an issue – I won’t look at it that way as like I said, I don’t feel forty and I’m sure it won’t make any difference to me, but it is a strange situation I guess!” 

Picture supplied by Gillingham Football Club.