Mark Bonner will be assisted by a couple of former Charlton Athletic coaches after confirming his backroom team.
Anthony Hayes – who spent seven years as a coach with the Addicks – has moved to Priestfeld as Bonner’s assistant manager, having most recently been a first-team coach at Championship side Sunderland.
Peter Gill, meanwhile, leaves Charlton where he had been a professional development phase coach. He heads to ME7 as Gillingham’s first-team coach.
Deren Ibrahim, meanwhile, stays on as goalkeeper coach.
Hayes said: “I am really excited and delighted to be here. I am looking forward to the challenge.
“We now have to concentrate on the work we do on a daily basis that is going to give the players the best chance of winning football matches.”
Irishman Hayes, 37, rose up through the coaching ranks at Charlton after joining them in 2016, starting out in their academy. He had a three-game spell as caretaker manager after Ben Garner’s exit from the club.
He describes himself as a “passionate developer of people” and has worked under the likes of Nigel Adkins, Johnnie Jackson and Dean Holden at Charlton.
Prior to working at Charlton he was youth manager at Brentford.
Gill says that he is a “student of the game, hungry to learn, adapt and succeed within the game.”
He has previously worked with Bonner at Cambridge United as a coach and prior to that had been academy manager at Barnet and youth coach at Leyton Orient.
Gill also spent a season in Australia as lead coach at semi-professional side Olympic FC.
He said: “I understand how Mark wants to work, his values and his ethic off the pitch but then, importantly, understanding how that translates onto the pitch.
“I like to build relationships with players and working with them as individuals first, and then collectively as a team. We now need to plan pre-season, look through clips of players so I can help them from day one.”
