Gills boss reacts to 0-0 draw with Portsmouth at MEMS Priestfield Stadium
Justin Edinburgh says things have `gone to plan` during the club’s pre-season schedule.Gillingham drew 0-0 with Portsmouth in their final friendly before the league season begins against Sheffield United, but Justin says he is happy with the way things have progressed.
He said: “I think it wasn’t as fluent a game as we would have liked but very competitive and certainly one we felt would put us in good stead going in to the start of the season.
“Overall there were some positives to come out of it, it was a keenly fought contest and I’m pleased with the outcome.
“Obviously we would have liked to have won the game and score some goals but overall pre-season has gone to plan.
“Both teams stifled each other; there wasn’t much fluency or invention. There was certainly good effort and endeavour but perhaps lacked that bit of quality in the end.”
The Manager was forced into a change on just five minutes when Aaron Morris was replaced by Jake Hessenthaler, but Justin is hopeful it is just a small knock which will clear up sooner rather than later.
He added: “We think it’s just a knock; we thought it might be a knee problem but hopefully he will be OK for training next week.
“Jordan Houghton took a knock to the ankle on Wednesday and we just wanted to make sure we took no risks, we rested him.
“Doug and Cody are progressing, we knew it was going to be touch and go whether they would get game time in but hopefully they’ll both be looking to get into training the latter part of next week.
“Maybe Saturday might come too soon but they are not far away now.”
Josh Wright played in the second half having trained with the first team for a week, but Edinburgh says no decision has been made in regards to whether he remains with the Gills or not.
He said: “It works for both parties; Josh has come in with a first class attitude and done really well in training. We are helping him and thought it would be good for him to get some minutes and pose some questions.
“It’s dependant on how the injuries progress this week and we will assess it from there.”