GILLINGHAM'S new manager Neale Cooper says he will be going all out to get the club promoted back to the Championship in his first season in charge.

After his appointment was confirmed on Saturday morning, the new man on the block at Priestfield said: "A lot of people will be hoping and expecting us to bounce straight back into the Championship and we will certainly be trying to do that.

“But I know from my experience that it’s a tough division and we’ll have to fight hard. A lot of teams will think, because we’ve just come down, that we’ll be on easy street and want to turn us over. We’ll have to guard against that.”

The former Hartlepool boss will be assisted by Ronnie Jepson, who was also number two to the kent club's outgoing manager Stan Ternent.

Cooper and Jepson have both been handed two-year deals by chairman Paul Scally and the mission to get Gills back into the Championship.

Cooper, a Scot, who left Hartlepool after taking them into the play-offs and also led Ross County to two promotions, was contacted by Scally last week and spent all of Friday meeting with Jepson in Aberdeen.

Jepson said he was delighted to still be at the club after Ternent decided not to stay.

Jepson said: “I’ve had a good feeling about this club since I first came with and it’s great to still be here.

“Neale and I are both people who want to win and I will give him 110 per cent.”