Oli Hawkins’ Gillingham return was a weekend bonus but the head coach wants his team to play with more creativity when he’s on the pitch.
The 31-year-old striker hadn’t played since pre-season because on a problematic heel injury but was introduced against Bradford on Saturday for his first appearance of the season with half an hour to go.
Head coach Stephen Clemence was delighted to have another attacking option at his disposal but felt that the introduction of their 6ft 6inch striker at 1-0 down led to his team implementing an obvious approach.
Clemence said: “You could see Oli was a handful when he went on but I think we have got to work on what we do when he does come on.
“We can’t just shell it up to him and think, ‘go on then, let’s just whack the ball to his head and try and get around it’, there has to be a bit more to it than that, that is something I am going to work on.
“He is a handful but he has to be used in the right way and that is something we will work on at the training ground.”
Fellow striker Ashley Nadesan wasn’t involved at the weekend but Clemence says he was carrying a knock. Ethan Coleman had also been in a battle to play at the weekend but the midfielder came through to play 72 minutes.
Clemence said: “The two we had doubts with (before Saturday) were Ethan Coleman and Nadders.
“Nadder is fine, he trained a bit less than Nico (Tom Nichols) and Hawks and that is why I made that decision.”
