Three weeks after being appointed Gillingham manager, Adrian Pennock finally looks like taking his Priestfield bow as boss this weekend with Shrewsbury Town the visitors to Priestfield.
After picking up a point at leaders Sheffield United last week, the new Gills boss has some momentum going into the weekend but as he told KSN this week, the Shrews represent tough opposition.
“It’ll be a tough game!” Ady told us. “I know Paul Hurst very well from his days at Grimsby – he’s one of the good people in football; a genuinely nice fella and he’s doing very well there. He went there with them bottom of the League, and he’s got some good results which doesn’t surprise me as he’s a good coach! But it’ll be a bit game – a massive game for us to be fair and if we can get that first win then I’m sure it can be a springboard for the rest of the season.”
“They work very hard for each other, but we’ll have a game plan for them as we did at both Oldham and Sheffield and we’ll go from there.”
Pennock went on to look at the selections for the weekend. “Chris Heard is a one who we’re monitoring on a daily basis,” the Gills boss told us, “and we’ll see about, but other than that we’re more or less at full strength.” There was though good news about the longer term injuries, “Bradley Garmiston and Lee Martin are both going to play in an in house game next week for the first time. We’d hoped that it would be this week but the weather not only put paid to the Wimbledon game on Tuesday but that as well! It’ll be a big bonus to get them both back… but we’ve got to be sensible with both of them and manage them properly. With Bradley he’s already broken down twice – he’s seen a specialist this week and is close to being involved. With Lee he’s a naturally fit boy anyway and its just the competitive side of it no with the tackles of a game – it really will be like to new signings for us! We mustn’t forget that Lee’s three months ahead of schedule which is fantastic but we do have to manage his situation very carefully. We can’t just put him into the first team – he’ll have some behind closed doors games and some friendly matches to get him right.”
Pennock then spoke of being a manger in the middle of the transfer window, “We’re still talking to people but it’s got to be right for the football club as well as the player – we want the right character to fit into the dressing room and be a good player for the club. We were supposed to sign a player this week who I won’t name but after we looked into him a bit further we found that he wasn’t right for us! I went to a game on Monday – an under 23 game – and there were a some players on view. But when you talk to the agents and the clubs and find out that they’re on £30,000 or £40,000 a week it just won’t happen. But its got to be financially right for the football club – the chairman and I are working very hard behind the scenes to get the right people into the club and they’ve got to be hungry to take the club forward.”
“The window is very frustrating as you get agents who’s only young playing five or six tiers lower than us who thinks he can play at this level when he’s only a sub at that level too. Its frustrating and we have to do our homework by any means we can – on the phone, watching games so that we can get the right people in. I think that we’re still short as a squad and if we were to pick up two or three injuries we’d be down to the bare bones. Its important that we get the right players in for the competition we want throughout the team, but it is difficult as not everyone is going to play between now and the end of the season unless there are suspensions or injuries. That said if we know that we’ve got the right person to go straight in if we do get any injuries then it’s a great help to all of not affecting the team. It’s far from easy as you try and tick the box, but we will get them in eventually.”
And so to Saturday and Pennock’s impending “second” debut at Priestfield! “We want the game on at the weekend, and we’re constantly checking the forecast, but John the groundsman has done an outstanding job here and you have to feel sorry for him a little bit as there’s not a lot he can do about the conditions at the moment. Extra covers have been on the pitch this week so fingers crossed…”