Gillingham manager Mark Bonner insists league positions are still not on his radar.
The Gills are 11 games into their League 2 campaign and were joint top before kicking off on Saturday – one of five teams on the same amount of points.
Port Vale are the new leaders after the weekend with the Gills slipping to fifth.
“Results and performances matter,” said Bonner, when asked about their drop in the league standings.
“The league table is absolute nonsense at this stage of the season. I said that when we were top. I said it when we were fifth. Absolutely irrelevant.
“Points matter. We haven’t got points because our performance hasn’t warranted them. So (we have to) fix that.
“Points lead to positions. Not the other way around. I don’t care whether we’re first now, or not.”
The Gills have had a rocky October – losing three on the bounce. It comes after a run of three straight wins at the end of September which left them top of the pile.
Bonner said: “When you’re first in September, what a great story that is to tell your grandkids when you’re older! No one cares.
“What happens in May is what matters. So for us, get performances to a level that allow you to get points. That will look after the other bit.
“The league table right now, other than maybe the lads getting a few more quid, depending on what position they’re in when they win, it’s irrelevant to me.
“If anyone gets carried away and we think we’re better than we are, shape up, because we haven’t been very good the last seven days, 14 days.”
For the record, the Gills are now two points off leaders Port Vale and one above next weekend’s hosts Bradford City.
City moved up to eighth and into the play-off positions after a 2-0 win at Tranmere on Saturday.
Bonner had been pleased with the start the Gills made to the season, in the first 10 games, and aims to build on that early success in the next 10. Saturday wasn’t an ideal start.
With goals drying up one end and conceding them the other, he knows they have work to do.
He said: “We’ve conceded too many chances, conceded too many goals from soft moments and not scored enough or made enough of our attacking play. We’ve got to fix all of that and improve all of that. That will take time.
“We’ll have moments where it’s good, moments where it’s not. That’s the pattern of a season.
“This block now, this next sort of nine to ten games, is consolidating on the start that we’ve made. That isn’t a good start to that.
“It’s up to us to change that and have the mentality to step on and go to Bradford next week, which is a really tough one, who are flying, and show a little bit.”
