John Coleman has been reflecting on his opening couple of weeks at MEMS Priestfield, and whilst he is still getting to know his Gillingham squad, clearly he has his sights set very high.

Winless and now goal-less in their last four games, Coleman told KSN, “It’s a wonderful club; it’s that the team isn’t performing to the levels that the club has provided for!”

“I wouldn’t say it needed a saviour, but it definitely needed a change of impetus. I think the whole place and the fans need a feel-good factor, and we can get that with a couple of goals in a game, but they need a lift and hopefully we can give them that lift.” 

“As I have said before, there is no guarantee to that though! You can guarantee success by putting the parameters of working hard, encouraging and being positive, and we were for twenty-five minutes against Doncaster, but I don’t think we guaranteed success ourselves in the second half because we went into the lull that we expected to go into anyway, the one that the fans have been seeing for quite a bit now!” 

“We have to snap out of it and snap out of it quickly, the big thing is not to feel sorry for yourself! That said, you can see why people are feeling sorry for themselves as we are not getting the results that we feel as though the effort deserves.”

“But we have to put more effort in and keep raising the stakes, you have to keep getting more reserves out of everybody.” 

“One of the things that I have done through all of my career is that if things are not going well, the first thing I look at is myself and are the answers within myself?”

“I look in the mirror and ask what I could do differently and I admit that there are three or four things that I would have done differently on Saturday.”

“I am always trying to learn and educate myself, I am like a sponge trying to soak up information, but the big thing is that we have to initiate drive into the players, you could see the potential for it, but now we have to take that on another step.” 

“Patience is a word that seems to have gone out of the vocabulary of British people at the moment in every walk of life and society! Everyone wants instant gratification, I remember a time if you wanted something you saved up for it, but now people have to have everything now, and that does translate into football when everyone wants instant success, an immediate reaction and an immediate response.” 

“When two football teams go into a game, only one of them can win. I know that there are draws, but people want success now and if you are paying your hard-earned money in a time of austerity, have you got a right to expect success.”

“And you know I think that you have, one of the big skills in football is having an element of realism, and not getting caught up in emotion and not getting caught up in hype, keeping your feet firmly on the ground.”

“That is whether you are winning or losing, don’t get too high and you certainly shouldn’t get too low. I changed my way of thinking about ten years ago, it certainly served me well in my second spell at Accrington.”

“I don’t read social media, I don’t read other people’s comments and I firmly believe that you interact with your players to try and get the best out of the ones you’ve got or you bring in other players who you think you can work with!”