Ady Pennock has put the differences he had with Paul Scally behind him so as to focus on the future at Gillingham.

Pennock made a return to Priestfield last week to take on the role of Head Coach with Jamie Day and Steve Lovell joining him in a new look regime following Justin Edinburgh’s departure.

When the former Gillingham defender left the club in January 2003, Pennock was vocal about feeling he’d earned a testimonial at Priestfield having spent seven year at the club, but it never happened.

Some 14 years later and plenty of water under the bridge, Pennock and Chairman Paul Scally have settled their differences and the former central defender told Kent Sports News he was glad to be looking to the future now and had been considered for the job at Gillingham a couple of years ago:

“A couple of years ago the Chairman gave me a call when I was at Forest Green. We had a chat about the job then, but obviously I was loyal to Forest Green at that time because I thought it was a club going places.”

“That didn’t materialise for one reason or another from their chairman.”

“We then had a good chat and that’s water under the bridge. Everyone knows what happened before. Since I have left the club as a player, a lot of things have happened and to put things into perspective, I lost my brother in the middle of November suddenly.”

“With what also happened at Forest Green, it puts everything into perspective and we’ve spoken. That was then, this is now and I’m very pleased he’s got me here. Me and the Chairman will work very closely together and it’s important that the manager and the chairman have a good relationship.”

Many former Gillingham players have come out in support of Pennock’s appointment including the likes of Barry Ashby and Guy Butters, but the new Head Coach insists there won’t be a return for the duo in the short term:

“I don’t think their legs will be good enough on a Saturday anymore! I’ve had some great support already from ex-players and supporters. I’m very humbled and I will get around to speaking to them all.”

Three players that won’t be returning to Gillingham though are goalkeeper Jonathan Bond, Baily Cargill and Frank Nouble.

Bond and Cargill’s loan spells have come to an end and they’ve returned to Reading and Bournemouth, whilst Nouble has been released with Pennock hopeful of bringing in at least one new face before this weekend’s game at Oldham Athletic.