The 'B' of the bang

Last updated : 04 July 2008 By Simon Head

Last season saw the Gills regularly concede late goals in each half as other sides appeared better conditioned than ours.

And when Mark Stimson arrived at Priestfield and assessed the state of the squad he commented that the team wasn't fit enough. He brought fitness coach Danny Ellis into the setup to improve matters, but bringing in major changes to a fitness regime in the middle of a season is always risky so the amount of serious fitness work was restricted to avoid causing injuries to players.

But with a full pre-season and a decent-sized squad already in place, Stimson and Ellis, along with Assistant Manager Scott Barrett, have been putting the Gills players through their paces at the club's Beechings Cross training ground.

Many players worked on their fitness with the coaching staff during the off-season, and hopefully that will show when the season kicks off on August 9th, and earlier this week we learned that the squad had been tested to assess their fitness levels, with the tortuous 'Bleep Test' forming part of the assessment.

While fitness is important, Stimson has said that the team will be doing a lot of ball work from now until the start of the season, and this, along with the improved fitness levels, should help give the team the best chance of a fast start next month.

Patterns of play, team shape and general familiarity between players are all crucial elements of a team's pre-season, especially when you're bringing new players into the setup. Many of the current squad were new last season, and there are a handful of youngsters making the jump up from the youth team. The next couple of weeks will be crucial for building team spirit and creating that togetherness every successful club needs.

The main player movements have seen players departing Priestfield rather than arriving, but the suggestion seems to be the players who have left weren't giving the required levels of performance for the manager, so they've been moved on. I see no problem with that, although sometimes it results in some negative press, such as Aaron Brown's attack on Stimson earlier this week.

But I'm hopeful that, even if we bring in no more new players between now and the start of the season, we'll kick off with a fitter, stronger, more united and better prepared squad than we had last season. And with the drop in quality from League One two League Two, that surely means we're in for a better season - and a much better start - this time around.

Roll on August 9th...