GILLINGHAM continue their pre-season preparation on Saturday at Gravesend with manager Andy Hessenthaler demanding his players up the tempo after he accused them of treating the Southend friendly as a testimonial.

The player-manager, returning to his home town club, stressed: “I want us to do a lot better against Gravesend."

Centre-back Barry Ashby, who was replaced by Danny Spiller after 37 minutes at Southend, is likely to miss the game at Stonebridge Road (kick off 3pm) with a thigh injury.

But trialist goalkeeper Scott Ward from Luton is sure to get another run-out after an impressive second-half performance at Roots Hall.

Gravesend include ex-Gills Adrian Pennock, Robin Trott and James Pinnock in their squad plus former Priestfield trialist Andy Drury, who cost £1,700 from Sittingbourne a week ago.

On a sad note, Hessenthaler confessed that the death of chairman Paul Scally’s baby son, 16-week-old Elliott, had cast a long shadow over the Priesfield club.

He explained: “The news has affected everyone and the players have been very solemn. We saw that in Tuesday’s friendly at Southend. I don’t want to use this as an excuse but we’ve all been down.”