John Schofield says preparation and attention to detail has been key...
Assistant Manager John Schofield has praised the efforts of the players and backroom staff in helping to guide the Gills to second in the npower League Two table.The Gills number two said that correct plans and procedures have been put in place to aid injury prevention and match recovery, and the players have taken it upon themselves to do extra work to improve their fitness.
Speaking in his midweek press conference he said:
“James Russell, the Physio Gary Hemens and the lads are working ever so hard in the rehab work and their cool downs etc, it’s unbelievable. We have shown them the sessions but the lads have to do them and fair play they are in at half nine every morning.
“They are doing their after sessions, in the ice baths and in the pool so they are doing the right stuff and it’s not luck that we have no injuries, it’s through hard work and planning and the lads desire and dedication to be fit and I think that’s fantastic.
“For a football club to be able to say at the end of January that we have no injuries and we are raring to go, I think that’s brilliant.
“Our players know they are fit, strong and prepared and they are great professionals in their rehydration’s and prehab work. Bring the games on, we are ready, we’ll play every day.”
The Gills last played in the 2-1 defeat to Port Vale two weeks ago in a performance which John said last week was good enough to get at least a point from, and although he admitted it was frustrating to see the Rochdale game be postponed seven days ago, he says the players are now raring to go against York this afternoon.
He said: “It’s difficult but that’s part and parcel of the job we are in – the main thing is that we stay positive until we are told the game has been called off.
“That’s what we do and then we deal with any ifs and buts and whatever scenarios after that. We came back and trained and the lads got the weekend off but you have to make the most of it and are prepared for the games that are coming up.
“We have trained fantastically well for the last couple of days and the lads are ready.
“I think because we’re in such a fantastic vein of form anyway, if you’re not getting maximum points in every game it looks like you are not performing to your best level.
“Is it disappointing when you don’t pick points up? Of course it is, we go into every game trying to win that game but also we are looking at performances.
“First point of call is that we want to win every game, if we don’t do that you want to get something out of it. There can be positives like there were in the match against Port Vale.
“We wrestled the game out of their hands and dominated for long periods so it is disappointing when you don’t win every game but you’re not going to win them all so we built our plan this year on gaining a number of points.
“Over the course of 46 games we need to make sure that we’ve got those points and we’re doing OK at the minute.
“It’s a case of making sure that at the end of the season we are in the position we want to be in. You can look at the Port Vale scenario, we beat them away from home and they beat us here.
“You’ve got to make sure you pick the points up. Do you want to win all of your home games? Ideally we want to win every game but we need to make sure we keep performing, and when we do, the points will come along and that’s what we need over the course of the season to make sure that we’ve got enough points to achieve what we are trying to achieve.”