Martin Allen to show former club total respect as Gills look to seal title
Martin Allen says he will show former club Cheltenham Town total respect this weekend as his Gills side go in search of three more points to attempt to clinch the league title.
A 1-0 victory over Torquay United at the weekend was enough to propel Gillingham to League One after a three year absence, but Martin remains grounded and now wants to finish the season in style by winning the title rather than divert attention to defeating his former club.
He said: “They have got really good supporters at Cheltenham, very close to the pitch and it will be a tough game.
“No scores, I don’t have to settle scores with anybody. I just do my job; I don’t live in the past, I live to the future. It’s a fantastic football club and it’s the club I supported as a little boy and for several years when my dad was the Manager the supporters were good to me.
“I have some great memories there from when I was a boy, great times and I will always be very fond of that football club and no-one will ever change that.
“I’m going back there now as the Manager of Gillingham. I certainly won’t be dancing around on the touchline, I’ll show respect to their supporters.
“I didn’t do a very good job there, I made a lot of errors and a lot of mistakes and I should have done things differently. I know now that I have to go back, do what I’ve got to do with the club I’m at, do keep a low profile, do my job and that’s what I will do.
“I’m here for Gillingham and that’s it.”
The Manager said he wasn’t following other scores on Saturday and said, contrary to a television programme he had watched, that his team have gained positive results in the past few weeks.
He said: “I didn’t even know who they were playing. I heard some TV programme the other day that said `Gillingham have only won once in their last five games with four draws, ` as if we had been awful.
“I thought it was wonderful to watch – it didn’t mention the fact we had been away at Morecambe, Exeter and Rochdale all in one week with the most dreadful weather going.
“The team has been full on from start to finish, we just keep going and marching forward.”
Following the game against Torquay Martin brought Assistant Manager John Schofield and Goalkeeping Coach Carl Muggleton to address the media, and both spoke of their pride at achieving promotion.
John said: “It’s a surreal feeling – at the start of the season we turned up at 5.30 in the morning and it’s been full on since then. I don’t know how many days it will take to sink in really.
“The rewards are promotion.”
Carl added: “Nels has been different class this season and he works really hard. Everybody puts things together, they work hard together and these are the rewards you can get.
“The best reward we can have is promotion and if we can go on and get the Championship then great stuff.”
For the thoughts of Chairman Paul Scally click here.