Gills manager Mark Bonner was pleased with what he saw from his squad after their 2-0 win against Watford at the MEMS Priestfield Stadium on Saturday.
It was a game in which Gillingham had to do a lot of work off the ball. After a difficult start, Bonner believes his team adjusted well to what The Hornets threw their way and was full of praise for their defensive efforts.
There were multiple players that missed the fixture, with the Gills boss providing an update on their respective situations.
Harry Webster, a second-year scholar, started the game at right-back and was awarded the Man of the Match award for his strong first-half performance. Bonner praised his efforts as well as the other youth team players who have made the step up during the opening weeks of pre-season.
Thoughts on the game...
I thought it was a good game. It probably took us 15-20 minutes to get to grips with their shape. We worked a little bit this week on what we thought we might come up against, but we struggled to deal with a bit of rotation and movement early on, but we got to grips with it. Some of our defending on the ball and around the ball was very good.
We knew that the game would be a bit more of a counter-attack and out-of-possession day for us, so we worked quite a lot on that this week. It was a good opportunity for us to test ourselves, and we had some good moments. They had some good chances in the first half. They dragged a few wide and had a few set plays, but for us, both goalkeepers haven't been troubled in terms of saves, but we have had to defend a lot around our box and a lot of penalty box entries. I thought we did that quite well.
I thought that we looked dangerous in counter-attacking situations and scored two good goals. We looked fitter and more organised than last week, which is important.
The performance of younger players...
They are coping and training well. Harry Webster has had two really good games against good wingers. He has played really well, so we are happy with him.
It is a big challenge for them to maintain that level and standard. I am pleased with how they have coped so far in a fairly difficult environment in these first two games.
What to expect during the pre-season...
There is loads to do, and we hope to see that over the next couple of weeks. We have got a busy two weeks now. We go to Dartford and then Southend; the following week we go to Woking. We have got four games to build everyone up to 60, 75 and 90 minutes for the main guys and some sessions around that.
Then we have one more blank week before Carlisle. We're at the halfway point in pre-season, so we're in a nice situation. We have done a lot of work. It has been really intense, and the guys have been great. We have to keep getting better because the real stuff looks a lot different to this.
Injury updates...
[On Ethan Coleman] - Ethan had a scan in the week on an ankle injury that he had last season, so he has been out in the offseason resting and rehabbing. He meets a specialist on Monday, so we will get an idea on whether there needs to be any intervention on that. He is quite a bit behind.
[On Jonny Williams and Josh Andrews] - Jonny Williams felt his groin a bit yesterday. Josh has been dragging himself through the last few days with a tight quad.
Armani Little rolled his ankle on Monday. We will probably not see him in the next four friendlies, but we hope to have him back for the week leading up to Carlisle.
[On Ashley Nadesan and George Lapslie] - Nadders trained for the first time yesterday, so we might be able to get some minutes out of him next Saturday. Laps has worked really hard the last couple of days and is back training Monday.
Transfer updates...
I have spoken to a lot of players over the last ten days, so there's nothing other than some conversations. There's nothing more than that at the moment. We're looking to add in attacking positions and potentially add in midfield because we're looking a bit light at the moment.
We have lots to add to the squad at the moment. There's no real news on anybody coming in. Nothing is imminent.
