Gills Manager Mark Bonner was pleased to get through the final pre-season friendly against Woking on Saturday, with everybody getting through unscathed ahead as the new league campaign approaches.
Jacob Wakeling, who signed for the club during the week, got on the scoresheet during the 1-1 draw after a well-worked goal, following an excellent cross from Max Clark.
With the pre-season schedule coming to a close, Bonner knows that things will ramp up another level with the league campaign beginning with Carlisle United on Saturday.
He is expecting a different attitude and focus from his squad, with competition for places heating up
The Gills boss also provided an injury update.
The Jacob Wakeling goal...
I thought that it was a brilliant header. It was a lovely delivery from Max [Clark] and a nice bit of play from us. It came not long after a little counter-attack from Glenn Morris and a switch of the play to Max. It was a really good delivery and an excellent header. It was a really good and well-taken goal.
The end of pre-season and looking ahead to the beginning of the season...
It has been a really good five weeks. There wasn't loads to love about today's game, but I have seen so many of those last days of pre-season games, where it's just about getting yourself through the game and ticking the box off and making sure that you're fit for the next week.
We got through that today with everybody here in good health, which is important. You come in Monday with a slightly different focus towards your games.
We start with a great one to look forward to next weekend.
Players getting match minutes...
[On Jacob Wakeling] - It was good for him to get an hour. He's not played for a week or so, so that was important for him.
Lots of the other boys have been chipping away, getting minutes. Over the course of the pre-season, lots of them have had quite a few. We're quite pleased that we got lots of them there today. That will serve them really well now, going into the next week.
It was great to see Laps [George Lapslie] back out there for his first minutes of pre-season. It was great to see him get half-an-hour.
Competition for places...
Everyone needs to know that the shirts are up for grabs still next week. It will probably continually change over the next month. It is good to have that little internal competition. I certainly don't want the players getting comfortable.
There are loads of places up for grabs. We hope that some of those that weren't here today will be available, and therefore, the team can change and be different, which is good. Whatever it is next week we want to start well in games and finish strongly. That comes down to the players that aren't in that starting team.
In what will be a really busy month, there will be lots of opportunities for everyone to contribute. That will be up to them to drive and give the right performance levels to earn the chance.
Injury updates...
Jake Turner felt his ankle a bit yesterday [On Friday]. He is fine and should train next week, so no problems. If we had a league game today [Saturday vs Woking], he would have played, so we don't need to risk that at all. We hope to get him back on the grass on Monday.
Josh [Andrews] and Elliott [Nevitt] are both missing at the moment. We don't know the timeline for that at the minute.
Armani Little is training fully next week. Ethan Coleman's back running. He has been out running on the grass a couple of times this week and will continue to improve next week. He won't be available yet and needs some training time.
