Gillingham’s new manager Mark Bonner has outlined what he expects from his team.
Bonner has been tasked with achieving promotion next season and has three months to prepare a side to take on League 2 when the 2024/25 campaign kicks off in August.
“It is not Mark Bonner FC, that’s the first thing,” he said.
“It takes a lot of people for a team to be successful.
“Most important is that we find a real collaboration, a real chemistry between supporters and players within the team and around it, so everyone goes together towards the same aims.
“I want to see from my team what loads of people want to see, I want to see a hard running team, I want a team with pace in it, I want to see an attacking team that out-scores the opposition but is really hard to beat, and never goes away in a game and people will stick with it.
“A season is 46 games, it’s a long slog, a difficult task, but when it is difficult you want a team that sticks together and grinds out results and when we are going well you want it to be as confident and at your best as often as possible.
“I think that is the vision of everyone, not just me, that is what Brad and Shannon (Galinson, the club’s majority owners) have made clear and what Kenny (Jackett, the director of football) has made clear.
“We want to build a team that is a force in the league, which everyone wants to be, we want to bring in players that can help us get better.
“We want to give people a team to be proud of, that is the starting point for every manager, that is mine here. I can’t wait to get out in front of a full crowd and a full Rainham End once the season kicks off.”
Bonner has already managed a side to promotion, with Cambridge United, so knows what it takes.
“It takes a lot,” he said. “It takes joined-up thinking and a thread that goes through the cub and collaboration of good ideas and good people, it is so important.
“It takes match-winnng players, a real strong base to your team that makes you hard to beat but ultimately you have to out-score opponents and we have to improve in those areas to give ourselves a chance.
“It takes an enormous amount of resilience, there are ups and downs and having calmness and clarity in those moments is really key.
“You have to have togetherness in your team, the talent has to be there, you have to work like a dog for nine or 10 months which is really demanding and challenging, we have to get to work on that but togetherness is everything.”
