Gills keeper praises Manager for the impact he has had on the squad
Gills goalkeeper Stuart Nelson has paid tribute to Manager Martin Allen whose help and guidance has helped the players to secure the club’s first league title in nearly half a century.
Nelson joined the club shortly after Martin’s arrival and has been a regular between the sticks throughout the season.
He said the team have achieved what they initially set out to do, and said the Manager has had a huge part on the overall success.
He said: “It’s easy to pass judgment from the outside but the proof is in the pudding – if he was crazy and didn’t know what he was doing, would we have won the league?
“That’s some lucky guy who has got a team to win the league in professional football. He knows what he is doing and there is a reason for everything he does.
“From the outside maybe people think he is mad but I have worked with him at a few clubs now and you can always see an underlining reason once he has shown you what it is. He’s a good man manager that gets the best out of players.
“It’s done in a different way but human nature is scared of change and doing something different. But he has a league title now so who is going to take that away from him?
“Everyone is happy, and if they’re not it’s because they are not in the team but no professional should be happy if you are not in the team. You play football to play football, and if you are not playing then you will be annoyed.
“On the whole the squad is fully behind the manager, trusts in what he says and to a man we have done our best to carry out what he wants us to do.
“We have gone out there and got the results. How can you knock him when his methods have gone and got us a league title?
“We have done what we set out to do which was to get promoted to League One. That was the ultimate goal and it’s what we all spoke about at the start of the season, and we’ve done it.
“Being champions put the gloss on top of it, the team as a whole has been different class.
“The consistency the boys have put in has made my job and the rest of the team’s job much easier.”
Stuart said he knew the club had potential from the moment he joined, and although he dropped down a division in order to achieve promotion, he said he always considered it a step forward for his career.
He said: “Some would say it was a step back – I might have thought it was in terms of league position but not as a club because this is a club that is going places and I saw that from the first day I came here.
“The facilities the club had it could only go from strength to strength and I wanted to be a part of that. Other players that have come in have obviously seen the same and together we’ve really done it and stepped on.
“I wouldn’t think anything of it because I have played the majority of my career in League One and there isn’t a massive gap. Last year Stevenage got in the play-offs after coming up and Swindon are up there this year so it’s an obvious thing that can be done.”
To watch Stuart’s pre-match press conference click here.