Gillingham’s Robbie McKenzie has praised the manager for helping to instil team unity this season.
The Gills head to Crewe looking to retain their place at the top of League 2 and the togetherness in the squad will be a big help this season.
“I think he’s maybe one of the instigators for the togetherness,” said McKenzie.
“He brings everyone together and he’s really good at that.
“I feel like in the changing room everyone gets along and everyone’s got the same goal in mind. No one’s trying to hinder anyone in any way.
“There’s a lot of supportiveness going on in there. It’s a great group.”
Speaking about the manager, he added: “He’s really detailed. He gets his point across really well of how he wants us to play and to set up. I think everyone’s buying into that. He’s been really good.”
McKenzie has enjoyed a good start to the season in central midfield, although he was needed to fill in at right-back on Tuesday night, covering for the injured Remeao Hutton.
“Because I’ve played so many different roles over so many different years I think I’ve learnt to adapt quite quickly,” said the former Hull City player.
“Obviously the first few minutes you’re getting used to it, getting a feel for the position, but I feel like I can adapt. You’re thinking on your feet as well because there’s 11 players against you too.”
Tuesday night’s game ended in a 1-0 defeat against Grimsby.
McKenzie said: “Crewe is going to be another tough League 2 game for us that we’re going to have to impose ourselves on, hopefully come out with a win and bounce back from Tuesday night.
“You go back in the dressing room (after the defeat) and you’re disappointed at first and I think the next few days you actually pick through the game and realise it wasn’t as bad as what you feel at the night.
“There’s obviously things you can work on, but there’s things we did well as well that we need to take into the next game. You’ve just got to look and learn from it.”
It’s almost exactly a year since Gillingham last visited Crewe – losing 2-0. That defeat was followed by the sacking of Neil Harris.
McKenzie’s seen plenty of comings and goings at the Gills since first joining under Steve Evans. He’s experienced relegation, the Galinson takeover, a fourth permanent manager and now hopefully a season of success.
McKenzie said: “The club as a whole has been a great place to be.
“I feel like we’re pulling in the right direction as a club and hopefully that continues. It’s a positive place to come. It’s a nice place to come.
“On a match day you can see the fans are back in numbers and that’s nice to see.”
Reacting to the McKenzie’s comment on team togetherness, Bonner said: “If you want an environment where people can be themselves you’ve got to be yourself.
“If you want an environment where people come to work and enjoy it you should try and make it enjoyable and look like you’re enjoying it yourself.
“If you want people to look at games logically without getting too emotional, then how you respond after defeats and look at games and analyse wins and losses is really important.
“Wins help team spirit massively, you don’t get many unhappy training grounds when the team’s winning, obviously the second side of that is there’ll always be some in the team that are unhappy while some are happy, because you’re playing or you’re not playing.
“You can’t get away from that but you hope that the consistency and the way we treat people and we behave does allow it to be a good dressing room.
“I think it’s fairly genuine when they say what they say at the moment. It’s probably credit to everybody for playing their part and making it a fairly positive and enjoyable environment that gets serious when it needs to, and takes the job seriously, but doesn’t take themselves too seriously, that’s quite an important part of it.”
