Keeper Glenn Morris has been talking to KSN about his instant return to Gillingham after he left Crawley Town by mutual consent after a very encouraging first half of the season at Priestfield.

Morris’ loan spell looked to have ended before Christmas when a shoulder ligament injury forced him off before half time against Northampton Town in November.

“I haven’t had many injuries in the last ten years,” Morris admitted, “So when you do get something serious, you know! And I knew straight away that I was coming off and I was in trouble. It’s not a nice feeling and as soon as the physio came on, I told him “I’m going off here” – I knew it was a problem.”

“As it was towards the end of the loan and I didn’t know what I’d done, everything goes through your mind which I guess is human nature. But it is what it is, and it happened, so let’s be honest it could have been a lot worse than “just” the ligaments in my shoulder – let’s be positive, it could have been a dislocation and an operation and out a lot longer!”

“Thankfully, it wasn’t, and I was able to get back fit and in for selection at Stevenage just before the loan actually finished. That might have been a key for me coming back, you just don’t know!”

“When I went back to Crawley, I was always keen to come back as Crawley was really finished for me in the summer,” Morris went on, “I knew that. I wanted to come back to Priestfield, but I did have the safety net of the contract at Crawley of another year if nothing did materialise.”

“But I didn’t want to do that – I wanted to get it sorted and come back,”

“It had to happen quickly as things were happening here and if I took too long, you just don’t know how things would develop. It was then a case of cancelling my contract at Crawley as quickly as possible and get back to Gillingham.”

“It’s surprising how quickly things have moved off the pitch here but living in the local area, I’ve always known what the club’s about and you could see the numbers coming in for the Leicester game which I saw on television and then again for the Hartlepool game, you could really sense the buzz of the place is so different to earlier in the season.”

“We’ve been in most games all season – losing one nil’s or by the odd goal – we have been very close in games, but it’s been evident that scoring goals is a problem as a team, not just the forwards, as a whole team, and that does add pressure to the whole team.”

“But the performances were there and there hasn’t been anyone coming off when we thought we could have beaten them on our day – but that’s football!”

Tom Nichols was one of the heroes in the win over Hartlepool and is someone the Gills keeper has faced fairly on a regular basis as they were former Crawley teammates.

“He’s a great player and was brilliant for “us” at Crawley and I think people saw that on Saturday – he’s very clever with his movement, getting fouls which, he did I think for the first goal which was a foul on him. He finds good areas and he can help with assists by doing a lot of work off the ball which can go unnoticed, so he will be key, but everyone will be – I think the whole squad will be used and it’ll have to be a real team effort!”