Gillingham defender Max Clark says the presence of chairman Brad Galinson around the club has given everyone a lift.
The Gills return to League 2 action at Priestfield on Saturday against Newport County.
Prior to a two-week break without a fixture, the Gills had gone nine league games without a win, but extra time in training has been beneficial, and Clark said that Mr Galinson’s return from America has been welcomed.
“It’s always nice to have him around the place,” said the Gills left-back.
“He gives a great energy.
“He’s so positive and everyone loves to see him around.
“I think staff, players, he loves everyone. To play for an owner like that, it’s second to none.”
Clark admits having the chairman watching on from the stands brings added motivation.
He said: “You know he’s backing you because that’s why he’s brought you here. You want to show that you can kick on more for him.”
The Gills head into the weekend refreshed after a break in fixtures, something Clark feels has been valuable.
He said: “We’re really looking forward to the game. It feels like a long time since we last played and it’s given us a chance to work on things in training.
“We’ll be buzzing to be out there.”
Newport are bottom of the table and the Gills picked up three points on their visit to South Wales earlier in the season.
Since then, Newport have changed manager and he’s been busy in the transfer window reshaping the team.
Clark expects a different a difficult challenge against Christian Fuchs’ side.
“It’ll be a tough task,” he said.
“They’ve got a good manager there, and they’ve brought in some good players. I know Harrison Biggins who has gone there, he’s a good player.
“They’re going to be a different kind of team to what we knew from before, but they’ve still got good quality players that can get in good areas.
“But playing at home always gives us a boost with the fans behind us.”
Despite recent results, Clark insists performances have been encouraging, and believes the break has allowed the squad to focus on their end product.
They lost 2-0 at Swindon last time out, on New Year’s Day.
He said: “We played on the front foot and were positive in that game. We played really well.
“We just obviously didn’t get a result, and it’s a result-based business.
“I feel like we have been playing well. We’ve just obviously been working on what we can do better in the final third, the end product, and just getting players in different positions.
“With the games being off it’s given us time to focus on that.”
Training time has been spent sharpening their attacking play.
Clark said: “We’ve been trying to focus on getting in better areas, bodies in different areas to get up the pitch.
“We’ve got a group that know we can have the quality, and I think we just need to show that.
“We’ve been working on that these last couple of weeks where we haven’t had a game, and hopefully we can show that.
“It’s been nice to reset going into the second half of the season. It’s allowed us to work on things that we can’t normally do because of how tight the fixtures are together.
“Everything’s been positive and everyone in the building is looking forward to the second half of the season where we’re going to show that everyone needs to chip in on goals.
“Don’t put too much pressure on the strikers because we need to be better. We all need to work together to help each other out.
“The last couple of results haven’t been the way we wanted to and we want to turn that around.”
