Gillingham manager Mark Bonner admits his players are probably bored of hearing his voice!
It’s been a busy week of training for the Gills, including lots of analysis, as they look to put back-to-back defeats behind them.
Up next at Priestfield are lowly Accrington Stanley and prior to that game, his players have been doing overtime in the lecture theatre, listening to their manager.
With 10 games of the season gone, Bonner was keen to get the players together to explain what he’s liked, and what needs improving.
He said: “We’ve had some longer meetings because we’ve had to cram quite a bit in, preparation for this game, but also just a bit of a review of where we are in the last week, the last game and the block of 10 games. The lads are probably bored of hearing my voice this week!
“We’ve done a lot and we’ve got a little bit more to do (on Friday), but we have to give them the information when we think it’s really important.
“They have to take it, digest it, use the right bits and ultimately we have to try and give the right information at the right time.
“The meetings have been great and we’ve been able to do lots of that with the lads and the two training sessions, particularly Tuesday and Thursday.
“We’ve really nailed down some good physical work which has been good as well, not only for the team off the back of the first 10 games last week, but certainly a number of individuals that maybe have been lighter on game-time or have missed periods early on.
“It’s been physically good for everybody.
“Ultimately, the proof of how beneficial it’s been for us will be seen in Saturday’s game, but we know it will serve us well over the coming weeks. Having a full week to train this week and next is really helpful.”
Gillingham made it to the 10-game mark sitting joint top of League 2 with six wins, a draw and three defeats.
Bonner said: “19 points from 10, I think everyone would have taken that at the start, I certainly would have. It’s more about the points probably than the position at the moment.
“It’s been a brilliant points return, you just can’t choose the order that the results come. I said that at the weekend, if we’d have lost a couple of games intermittently in amongst the wins it would feel a bit better when the last two is like that.
“Everyone would say ‘the wheels have fallen off’ and ‘you can’t play if you’ve got the ball’, which is fine, you take the criticism when it’s there but you just try and get better at that.
“We’ve reset a little bit. I see game one to ten in the season, or the first quarter, as about connecting with people, connecting with the team, connecting with the supporters, connecting with the players, connecting a new team in the club together and connecting our ideas to them, that’s what this first quarter is about.
“I think we’ve connected well with people. This next quarter of the season as we’re edging into it and we’re edging out of the start is like consolidating on a good start, that’s what we have to do now in the next five to ten games and that means basically repeating it in terms of points and keep improving.
“We’re really happy with the outcome in terms of points. You’ll never hear me say I’m totally satisfied with the points return. I think the job of the coach is to keep driving that and try and make sure the players have the same ambition.
“We want more, definitely, but we’re really happy with the starting point that we’ve had and after connecting with people well in this first period we’ve now got to consolidate on a good start and make sure it’s not wasted.”
