Bradley Dack says he’s got unfinished business at Gillingham after a frustrating past season.
The 31-year-old recently signed a new one-year contract and hopes he can be part of a successful team this coming season – after last year’s campaign failed to deliver what he’d hoped.
It was a disappointing season for Dack on a personal level, and for the team, as he only made 20 appearances on his return to the club – which included only five league starts. The Gills ended the season sitting 17th in the table.
Dack’s looking optimistically towards the new season, saying: “Things didn’t go right last year. There’s lots of reasons why, and there’s a lot of people to blame for that, and that’s including the players, but I think it’s a collective blame.
“For the club as a whole, it just didn’t really work. Sometimes that happens in football, but new guys (manager Gareth Ainsworth and assistant Richard Dobson) came in and it’s really positive.
“I really wanted to stay. We got something done pretty quickly and pretty easily. I didn’t really want to do anything else to be honest. There was nothing that came up that really sparked my interest.
“Why I wanted to come here last year was to get promoted, and we didn’t achieve that. That feels like unfinished business to me, and that’s what I want to be here to do.
“We had a great end to the season. I think it was 12 unbeaten to finish and the manager and Dobbo have come in and they’ve been first class. Their mentality, the way they drive standards has been really, really good and nice for me to see.
“They’re taking the club in a great direction and I wanted to be part of that. I’ve loved working with them. I like the group of players that we have. I think it’s a real hard-working group.”
Dack barely featured for the Gills in the opening few months of the 2024/25 season before getting a run of games off the bench in December and then seeing a handful of starts, in between Mark Bonner’s sacking and John Coleman’s arrival.
The crowd favourite had another spell out of the matchday squad following the away game at Newport – a match where he was one of the seven unused substitutes in a disappointing defeat in South Wales.
Ainsworth was in charge when Dack made his return to the side, coming off the bench to score the winner against MK Dons. He featured in the next four games as the season came to a close – prematurely for him.
“(The goal against MK Dons) was an amazing feeling,” he said.
“To be honest, [there was] a lot of frustration. I felt like that feeling should have come a lot quicker, a lot earlier in the season.
“It was disappointing to have to wait until then for that to happen, but it’s one of those things.
“We felt like we were starting to create a lot more chances, playing a little bit more attacking, which obviously suits me and I think suits the players in the group.”
There’s only been one new signing for the Gills so far this off-season but the squad is still sizeable. Dack’s one of five new players who have signed new deals since the end of the season.
He’s looking forward to the new challenge ahead with confidence.
He said: “There’s going to be a bit of pressure on us just because of the manager, the players we have, the budget, everything comes into it.
“Gillingham shouldn’t be in this league, but we are, and we have to find a way to get out of it. That’s what we’ve got to focus on.
“It’s a cliche, but it’s about taking each game at a time, building our consistency, building our momentum towards the end of the season. That’s when the medals are given out, not given out in August, September, October, November, December. It’s all about building towards the end.”
Dack believes the appointment of Ainsworth is a big boost to their hopes next season.
He said: “It’s become a really enjoyable place to go and work. I think that’s so important in football.
“Every successful team that I’ve been involved in, the work environment has been first class and that’s the feeling I get with this one as well.
“He says to the players that he wants us to enjoy the game and he wants us to fight for every ball and fight for everything on the pitch. If we can give him that he’ll always back us.
“I think everyone’s bought into that and you could see with the games that he took charge of at the end of the season that everyone gave everything.
“I know some people will think that that is a given, but there’s a lot of football teams and football players where they don’t buy into it. The team doesn’t become successful. It’s just how it works. Everyone has to buy into what a manager wants and the players that we have in that dressing room have definitely done that.”
Dack’s been through plenty of injury woes but is hoping a full pre-season ahead – something he hasn’t had in the last two years – will serve him well.
He said: “I think a pre-season will do me brilliant to get my body robust and ready to play a lot of league games next year. That’s my aim and I know I can help this team.
“I know I can affect the game at this level.
“I think I proved that towards the end of the season when I started finding my form and playing games.
“(I feel) really good. I’ve been working hard in the gym this off-season, trying to get the muscles stronger and then using pre-season to really build up that fitness level. It’s making sure my body is strong. Everything feels good, touch wood. The pre-season is only going to help to build my body and fitness and robustness.
“I think I started feeling good probably six weeks out from the end of the season, so it was probably the wrong time for the end of the season to come for me personally.
“I want to affect the games. I want to be the best player. I want to get this team to where it deserves to be and hopefully we can all do that together.”
