The end of the season has come too early for Gillingham midfielder Tim Dieng.
A pinpoint assist last weekend was followed by a goal at Mansfield on Saturday and the midfielder feels in peak condition after being out for a lengthy spell earlier this season because of injury.
Gillingham will finish their season at home to Doncaster Rovers this Saturday after missing out on the play-offs this time around.
“I can’t wait for next season and to do better than this one,” said the Frenchman, who has another year left on his Gills contract.
“I feel fully fit now, I have had a few injuries this season, I have had a good run of games and I am back to 100%.
“It’s great to help the team in scoring goals but unfortunately (on Saturday) that wasn’t enough.
“I think we showed our quality in front of a team that is getting promoted. We have the potential and the quality to get promoted. We will rest after Doncaster and go again next season.
“Our aim at the start of this season was to at least make the play-offs and we fell short which is disappointing but we have to reset and think about what we have to improve to reach our aim next season.”
The Gills would have still had a shout of making the play-offs in the final weekend had they held onto their 1-0 lead.
Dieng scored midway through the first half with an angled finish, wrong-footing the keeper who thought he was going for a cut-back to a team-mate, before slotting it home.
Unfortunately for the Gills, Mansfield came on strong in the second half and won it 2-1.
“It was very frustrating,” he said.
“We started the game well and first half we were brilliant, 1-0 up, they came back second half and the first goal disrupted everything a bit in our game and the second goal was a worldy, fair play to the guy who scored.
“We have shown some very good bits against a team that is getting promoted so that shows we can compete with the best teams in the division.
“We gave everything, even in the second half when we were 2-1 down, we tried but we fell short and it is a shame.”
Looking ahead to their final game, Dieng said: “We are not giving up, there is one game left, at home, in front of our fans and we want it to be a great day to end the season on a positive note.
“We will prepare this week to give everything against Doncaster and we will go for the three points.
“Every game we want to fight and especially at home. We want to show our fans that we don’t give up, we want to give them a good ending for the season.”
While the Gills will be looking to end the season on a high, it’s ultimately been a failed campaign, having had high hopes of promotion last summer.
Dieng said: “There are too many games where we should have won and we didn’t, Swindon at home for example when we conceded in the last minute, Harrogate away when like (on Saturday) we were controlling first half and second half we just crumbled, that is something we have to work on and come back next season and do better.”
