After Tuesday’s defeat to MK Dons, Gillingham head up the M11 this weekend looking to find some form, but waiting at the Abbey Stadium will be two former managers and the team who go into the weekend third in the League Two table and are eyeing automatic promotion – Cambridge United.

Since the draw at MEMS Priestfield on Boxing Day, the Gills have won just four times as they have slipped down the table and Tuesday’s mauling by the MK Dons, took things to a new level, and Vokes told us that the dressing room was stunned as well.

“We are hurting as much as anyone else is after Tuesday I am sure,” Vokes said. “The fans out there are disappointed, we are part of that, we feel that as well, but all we can do a squad, and a team is to put that right on the training pitch before we go out on the pitch on Saturday.

“That is one of the beauties of football as we get that chance in a couple of days’ time but there is only one way to put things right and that will be on the pitch on Saturday.”

“As a senior player, I think that it is down to me to have a cool, calm, composed head with messages that are through and precise.  Tuesday night wasn’t a nice situation really for anyone at the club I don’t think it was something we can accept really – it was a performance that was unacceptable but there is a good group of people in the dressing room that want to put it right and they want to put it right!

“We have gone through things off the pitch and on the training pitch this morning, so we have to go again on Saturday at Cambridge!”

“It is a football cliche, but for us we have to go back to basics; what we do well, what we do right and what we know. There is a reason why all these boys are at this Football Club – they are good players and now we need to show that and go back to basics and show what we are about and that is what got us success at the start of the season was that and the foundation there.

“Somehow, we have to get back to that. After the disappointment of the last couple of weeks, we have to get back to that point which I know this squad can get to.”                

Vokes who was a second half substitute for Ronan Hale, had a towering header ruled out for offside moments before Seb Palmer-Houlden did net for the Gills, but that doesn’t matter for Vokes now who’s eyes are only fixed on the Abbey Stadium and a return to winning ways.