Gills Manager pays tribute to two members of his backroom staff
Martin Allen has said promotion would not have been possible if he hadn’t had the help of Assistant Manager John Schofield and Goalkeeping Coach Carl Muggleton.
All three sat in front of the media following the 1-0 win over Torquay on Saturday, and Martin thanked them for their outstanding efforts throughout the season.
He said: “It wouldn’t have happened without Scoy and Muggs – they help me, they are brilliant with the players. Carlo has done a brilliant job with the goalkeepers but not only that he is a kind of Assistant Manager doing a lot of the other things that we put in to place.
“Scoy looks after the players to make sure they are happy – they all know where we are training and his match preparation has been fantastic. He helps me, supports me and looks after me to make sure everything is organised and everyone is in the right place at the right time.
“Getting them ready for when I have to work with them and if I have any problems these are the two people that give me the ideas and the support to make it right.
“I’m not sure if it’s sunk in yet [promotion] – I suppose we all have dreams, but when you actually do something it’s a strange and weird feeling. With a couple of minutes to go we had a hug between the three of us when we realised what was happening.
“We sat in my office, had a cup of tea and we have already talked about the planning for Cheltenham away and then we come back here for Wimbledon.
“I’m chuffed to bits but feet are totally on the ground, level and ready for the next challenge.”
Martin reflected on the first day the three of them, along with James Russell, met up to organise their pre-season schedule.
He said: “When we got together we didn’t actually get all the jobs put in to place until 5.30 on the day pre-season started. We prepared it early in the morning ready for the next five weeks in a hotel in Maidstone and I didn’t know where we were going!
“James Russell, who pretends he is a Gillingham supporter from when he was a boy, met with me and Scoy and Carlo came in a week later. We worked out what we were going to do in pre-season, took them off to France and when we were there we knew we had something special.
“We knew we had to improve defensively, we knew we had to work hard together to make something happen. There are a lot of players that aren’t here who I’m very grateful for.
“The new Physio [Gary Hemens] has come in so we have taken on new staff and we work very hard. We graft to put it all in to place and we have had the full backing of Mr. Scally and he has allowed us to do it the way we want to do it.
“He has picked me and allowed me to bring these two fellas in and he deserves a lot of credit, it’s been a big team effort that’s for sure.”
To watch Martin’s post match press conference click here.
For the thoughts of Chairman Paul Scally click here.