Former Gillingham striker Robert Taylor feels let down by the club after they pulled out of a pre-season game against his Diss Town side.

Taylor had been expecting to see a full strength Gillingham side come to his Ridgeons Premier Division club on Saturday 21st July for a game that would have helped fill the coffers of the non league club, but a phone call on Monday has led to the game being cancelled.

The game had originally being arranged between Taylor and former Gills boss Andy Hessenthaler, but since he lost his job as manager and moved upstairs into his role as Director of Football, things have changed and the game has subsequently been called off.

Speaking exclusively to KSN, Taylor was clearly disappointed with the news and the way the matter had been handled:

“We’re disappointed that we’ve had to call off the game as we’d spent a lot of money on advertising. To be told that they’re not going to bring a team up is devastating.”

“Everyone was looking forward to it and we knew that quite a lot of people would be coming to the game. That would have been a lot of revenue for our football club and now we’ve been told it’s not going to go ahead.”

“Mark Patterson rang me and told me that they’ve now decided to play Dartford on that day instead.”

“They had got us down for that day, but they’ve changed their minds now and I think that’s a bit bad on their part.”

“When you agree to something, you stick by it. Whether, there’s a new manager or not, when you’ve agreed to something, you should fulfil that fixture.”

“My lads were looking forward to playing a professional team and now I’ve got to tell them the bad news that it’s off.”

Taylor admits there is very little his side can do about the decision and went on to add that his side had been quite prepared to cover the cost of around £750 for Gillingham’s coach travel as had been requested, but would now look to play a Norwich City youth team instead.

Meanwhile, Taylor was also surprised by the manner in which Simon King, Garry Richards and Jo Kuffour found out that they had been released by the club:

“At the end of the day, it seems like they don’t care about players feelings. I couldn’t believe that they found out on twitter and for me that’s not the way to run a football club.”

“You’d have thought that they’d have got a phone call to say they were being released. Finding out on twitter is terrible.”