Steve Lovell has urged Gills fans to give his new recruits the chance to show what they can do.

He has signed a handful of players who were playing non-league football last season, including pacey forward Brandon Hanlan, who arrived this week.

Hanlan was playing on loan with Bromley last season in the National League and became a free agent in the summer after being released by Charlton.

Lovell said: “You have got to give people a chance sometimes and an opportunity to do something. If you believe they can do it then that is the most important thing.

“There will be people out there thinking, ‘well he hasn’t done this or that’, but I know what he can do. Judge him halfway through the season and then fair enough, if he has hasn’t done anything then I will hold my hands up and say okay, it wasn’t a good signing, but I am not having that stand in the way of giving that person an opportunity who I think and believe could be a really good player in League 1.”

Lovell has previously coached Hanlan at Charlton when the player was first starting out and said: “Brandon is a young, strong, quick centre-forward who can either play in wide areas or upfront as a no.9 or off a no.9, so he can give us something a little bit different to what we have got.

“There are a lot of people who won’t know about him but sometimes you can see potential. People talk about experience but you only get that through getting a chance and playing.

“It is up to him now. I know what his attitude is, the way he is, the way that he works and what he can do. It is a matter of working on that in training and making sure he understands the way we play and working on his individual game as well.

“Tom Eaves came here last year and he hadn’t scored that many goals wherever he had been but he got 18 last year, these are the things that can happen, so long as they have the ability within them to do it. It is up to us to get it out of them and I believe in all of the signings we have got.”

Fellow recruit Josh Rees is another player on the books at Bromley last season, hitting 20 goals from midfield, while Regan Charles-Cook also impressed while playing in the National League last season.

Lovell said: “I am judged on my decisions and I wouldn’t make a decision if I didn’t think it was the right one.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen, they could all be World beaters or not good enough, we don’t know, but I do know what they can do and what they have done at previous clubs, which warrants a chance to be given the experience to go and play and show what they can do.”