Gillingham boss Mark Bonner admitted his biggest leader at Bromley was watching from the bench while out injured.
Bonner spoke of his surprise at the sterile nature of the midweek derby encounter – with a lack of noise coming from the pitch. Armani Little was doing what he could while watching from the bench.
Little is likely to be missing again this weekend with a hamstring injury but is a player Bonner feels will be crucial if they want to achieve any success.
“He’s just so integral,” said the manager.
“What he brings to the team is everything we want to build the team around.
“At the moment, when he plays, he makes too big a difference and when he’s not there, it’s too big a loss. That’s a bit of a slight on everybody else.
“He was probably the biggest leader there (on Wednesday) night and he was in his tracksuit in the dugout.
“We’re desperate to have him back. We want to build a team around people like that but he’s not ready at the moment.
“The time off that we’ve had between games has probably helped and he’s not missed too many. I think, certainly this weekend and probably next week, it’s too soon for him.
“If we can get him back over that Christmas period at some point, then that’ll be important. I think with him, we need to try to get to a point where he can come back and not break again.”
Commenting on the midweek game at Bromley, Bonner said: “It blew my mind how quiet it was in the first half, in the stadium, and then on the pitch because you could hear everything on the pitch, or not.
“An edgy game, a local derby, a massive game and it didn’t feel like it. I think sometimes we need to play more like it matters, because it does.”
Bonner has no plans to change his captain, with Max Ehmer the club skipper. Little was made vice captain in the summer after his move from AFC Wimbledon.
A lack of characters is something that has been talked of as long ago as when Neil Harris was in charge. It’s still an issue.
“Characters show themselves in different ways,” said the current Gills boss.
“We’ve got some players that are really committed, really care, work every day, are consistent, reliable, trustworthy players but they probably haven’t got that extra little bit of leadership to really drive it and call people out and things like that and that’s fine. That’s probably the same in any team, that’s the group you get most of.
“We probably haven’t got loads that absolutely drive it and talk, but there’s less and less of those in football now I think than ever.
“We have some passengers and then you never want people that just sort of don’t buy in and don’t do it the right way. We haven’t really got any of those, so that’s good.
“At the same time we definitely need a little bit more to drive us. Armani is definitely one who is an absolute top character that we want to build around.
“Elliott Nevitt’s got a bit of that in him as well and there’s a few of them that have got it.
“We need to see that and we need to get those players in and we need to add more to the group and get more out of the players that we’ve got.”
