“We all felt disappointed after the game – we all knew that we didn’t hit our own levels and we let ourselves and the fans down!” Midfielder Robbie McKenzie’s honest views on last weekend’s defeat at MEMS Priestfield to Oldham Athletic ahead of the monster trip to Cumbria this Saturday to face struggling Barrow. 

Talking to KSN at this week’s briefing, McKenzie continued, “We have set our levels higher than we reached on Saturday – Saturday simply wasn’t good enough, we hold our hands up to that and will try to put it right on Saturday!”

“We have to stick together – the full club! Everyone has to be pulling in the right direction, and I feel that this week we have had good training sessions, it’s gone well and hopefully we can carry that forward into Saturday!” 

“We understand how the fans feel – we are frustrated ourselves in our performance,” the Gills midfielder told us.

“We feel that and we need to put it right; we need to do something where we can repay that back to the fans with a good performance and hopefully that will be with three points on Saturday.” 

“Everyone was frustrated and feels it and everyone shows it in different ways… some people like to talk, some people don’t but we all respect what people have to say and understanding that it’s coming from a good place and taking it not necessarily as encouragement, but taking it as a way to boost each other and getting it off your chest if they need to and be man enough to accept it as we try and put things right.” 

McKenzie came on the Priestfield pitch when the home side were two-nil behind and he admitted, “It was hard not to be able to do anything by not being on the pitch – it’s not an easy watch when you are not out there and can’t help.”

“The result certainly knocked us for six in the changing room afterwards but it’s all about how you learn from days like Saturday as a team, and as I said, this week has been really positive in training, doing the right things, so hopefully we will be able to put it behind us come Saturday.” 

Barrow will go into the game fighting against losing their precious League status again – the Cumbrians dropped out of the League in the early seventies and only returned post COVID in 2020.

“It’s going to be a tough game as they are fighting for their lives,” McKenzie admitted.

“We have to expect everything and be prepared for that – we have to go there and want to win more than they want to win and hopefully bring the three points back to Kent!” 

“The mood is the dressing room is positive. We know that we were nowhere near good enough last weekend and we have to put that behind us now to put things right, so we are all pulling in the right direction and hopefully it will all come together on Saturday!”