Shaun Williams was confirmed on Thursday afternoon as Gillingham’s skipper for the new SKYBet League Two season which starts on Saturday at Stockport. 

Talking to KSN about the decision, boss Neil Harris said, “he’s a different sort of leader from me! Stuart last year was a leader by voice and energy – I’ve had captains in Sean Morrison at Cardiff who was a huge personality, big leader of men, very aggressive on the pitch; Tony Craig very similar at Millwall, Steve Morrison slightly different personality!

“Shaun is completely different this year, he’s a top, top pro; his experience speaks for itself, he’s the eldest player in the group bar Glenn (Morris) as keeper, the eldest outfield player. He knows me better than anyone else in the group, he knows how I work; when I put sessions on he knows how to read me as a person which I think is important from day one and is a different type of leader to me, he’s a leader by example, he’s a leader by doing and he’s a leader by professionalism, by standards.

“He doesn’t have to get someone round the throat to be a good leader, he can do it by a stare, a quiet word, and for me developing he’s different to work with and biggest thing of all,” Harris added proudly, “he’s a bloody good player and a bloody good bloke!” 

Williams also spoke to us and said about his appointment, “It’s a privilege and an honour and something that myself and my family really appreciate and hopefully we can get the job done on the pitch.” 

“I’m not going to change with or without the armband, I’ll still be the same. But that said there are a lot of leaders and characters within the dressing room – I don’t have to say an awful lot because the dressing room leads itself!” 

“The manager got us together as a group before training and I have to admit that no one knew who it was going to be because there’s that many leaders in the dressing room. Max (Ehmer) is the deputy and I think that his performances last year warranted his starting place in the team every week – I thought he was fantastic thorough out the whole period of the season and for a man that’s been here for so long definitely deserves to be involved.” 

“Leading by example, setting high standards, setting expectations of myself and my teammates and trying to drag things forward.” 

Looking ahead to Saturday’s trip to Edgeley Park, Williams said, “I think the only pressure that we have will be on ourselves. Obviously, they have a quality squad so if we can within a place or two of them by the end of the season, I’m sure we’ll be right up there!”