As Gillingham prepare to entertain Plymouth Argyle in their final League One game of the season, assistant boss Paul Raynor has been reflecting on the past eight months.

“It’s been a long season if I’m honest,” the Gills assistant boss admitted.

“There have been so many things thrown at us, it seems to have dragged to some extent – that’s how we feel! We’ve been able to deal with everything that’s been thrown at us and we’ve had to get on with it!”

“It’s been a very strange season – we’ve had injuries to key experienced players; issues with the training ground; COVID issues to deal with – it’s not been easy, but full credit to all of the guys that it’s run as smoothly as possible and that we’ve been able to deal with it all, and – what I would consider – have a reasonably good season with it!”

“The players have gone through thick and thin for us all season,” Raynor told us. “There isn’t very many of them, we’ve had a smaller squad. We always run with a small squad – we don’t ever want six or seven players not involved at a weekend which is something we’ve never done.”

“They’re a tight nit group and we’ve probably used fourteen or fifteen players consistently through the season and they’ve been absolutely first class – they really have!”

“We lost Dominic Samuel for large periods, we missed Stuart O’Keefe for large periods, Kyle Dempsey at the start of the season was missing at a crucial time. We’ve just dealt with it and the ways the guys have responded and what they’ve done for us week in week out – we’ve had very few games where we felt we haven’t had a shift out of them and that’s the way they’ve been all season; they’ve been absolutely first class!”

“Much as there is pride of the boys’ efforts, there’s also frustration that how close we actually were to making the Play Offs. Looking back where points have gone astray from good positions – two nil up against Doncaster; two nil up against Oxford; two nil up against Northampton to name just three – of course there’s a tinge of frustration although at the end of the day we’re incredibly proud of the guys.”

“No matter what we have got and what we haven’t got, we put pressure on ourselves to try and deliver and so we are disappointed that we didn’t get over the line and at least be fighting to get into those Play Offs going into this weekend.”

“In the games we have dropped points, we’re all pretty sure that the fans would have pulled us through and would have even nicked us more points elsewhere at the end of games.”

“Going towards a packed Rainham End is a massive advantage for us and we certainly have missed that and that could have nicked us a few points here and there. They will be crucial for us next season and we can’t wait to get them back!”

“We want to finish as high as we can in the table, it’s as simple as that!”

With the end of the season, there’s a natural conversation about who will be in blue when – hopefully – the faithful return to Priestfield in August.

“We pretty much know where we’re going with the guys,” Raynor told us but then confessed, “there may be one or two that we’re on the fence with at the moment where a couple of good performances might have a say.”

“But as you can imagine, Steve and I and the staff speak daily about where people are and about the thoughts of next season; it’s all ongoing and it’s been important that the guys finish the season strongly – it always matters, it’s a football match that we desperately want to win!”

“I think that we’ll start next season in a stronger position with a stronger squad hopefully on the back of two solid seasons wherever we end up finishing and for people to talk about us right up until the final stages of the season was great to hear and shows just how well the boys have done. So, I think we’ll come back stronger next season and that’s certainly the plan as it always is.”