Gillingham head coach Stephen Clemence is hoping the extra time on the training ground this week pays off.
It’s Clemence’s first full week in charge of the Gills without a midweek match and he’ll be hoping to have worked more of his ideas into the players ahead of a home fixture this Saturday against 15th-placed Salford City.
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It’s two weeks in the job for Clemence now and the task of getting the Gills scoring more remains the focus. Goal-shy Gillingham endured another blank in front of goal last weekend.
Clemence said: “I have put some ideas into them and I have seen some success in certain areas but the hardest thing in football is to score a goal.
“The hardest thing in football is to create a chance. There is a lot of work to do in that area but that is what I am here for.
“I am looking forward to the challenge, and I think I can help the boys with it.
“I am hoping we can have some success with it quickly.
“You need that bit of individual brilliance sometimes, for someone to go past someone and cross it and are we crossing the ball enough? No, probably not. Are we playing enough one-twos in wide areas? No, probably not.
“These are things where I have got to get on the training ground and show them and tell them what I want and try and create overloads in certain areas and hopefully we can improve that.”
Clemence is looking to change the way the Gills play, with more possession and attacking intent, but it’s not something he can implement straight away.
“You can’t change everything,” he admitted.
“There was some good stuff going on here before I arrived, not everything needs changing, not everything is broken, but we all know we need to create more and we need to score more.
“You can get bodies into the right areas, more balls into the box and try and get more people in there to try and get on the end of them. That is what I will be trying to do.”
Gillingham’s form in front of goal has been poor for some time. They were the lowest scorers in League 2 last season, with 36 from 46 games, and have hit the net just 14 times in 17 fixtures so far in 2023/24, again the lowest in the division.
Clemence is confident he can fix the problem and that time on the training ground is vital in that regard.
“It’s a process and it is going to take time to get to where we want to get to,” he said.
“We saw some good moments against Hereford in the first half and won 2-0. [Last Saturday] there were some moments in the first half [at Wrexham] but we didn’t probably create as much as I would like.
“I can’t fault their efforts but there is plenty we have to improve on.
“I knew before I came in where we were short and that doesn’t change in four or five training sessions, especially when you have three games thrown in there as well.
“Most coaches would want a full pre-season. I’m not saying I need a full pre-season, I know I need results and I have to get them quickly, that is the pressure I have got on the boys as well as myself.
“You can’t change the whole way we are going to play as quickly as I would like, but there is a process in place and I hope we get there soon.”
