Gillingham head coach Ady Pennock is keeping last season’s backroom team together.

Steve Lovell and Jamie Day are both staying on as first team coaches.

Pennock has also decided to retain the services of goalkeeping coach Ian Pledger and fitness and conditioning coach Neil Withington.

All four were appointed in January, initially until the end of the 2016-17 season, following the sacking of Justin Edinburgh.

Pennock was given the green light to continue a fortnight ago and the head coach was keen to have the same team working alongside him.

Lovell, 56, was a goal scoring hero for the Gills as a player and has served the club well over the years in different capacities, whether within the community department, coaching the club’s youngsters or working with the first team.

Before returning to the Gills, he had been assistant manager with National League side Bromley.

Day and Pennock worked together previously at Welling United and Forest Green Rovers.
The 37-year-old former Arsenal player also managed briefly at Braintree at the start of last season.

Withington, who has worked under Pennock at Forest Green Rovers and Welling previously, will be a key man in the early weeks of pre-season.

The players return from their summer breaks between June 22-23 ahead of a rigorous schedule which will see them head to Ireland for a week (June 25-30) before a training camp in Le Touquet, France (July 4-11).

A game in France against Amiens on Friday, July 7, kicks off their pre-season friendlies but there will be no home match against relegated La Liga side Granada, originally scheduled for July 25. The Spanish club have scrapped their tour of the country.