Gillingham’s experienced coach Richard Dobson said this week’s training has been some of the best he’s ever seen.

The Gills’ assistant manager now hopes the players can replicate their training ground showing where it matters most.

Dobson’s in caretaker charge at the club while the manager recovers from heart surgery, and the players haven’t been taking their foot off the gas while the boss is away - quite the opposite.

There’s a buzz around Priestfield and even a run of three games without a win hasn’t dampened the atmosphere.

Dobson said: “Tuesday's training session was up there amongst one of the best in 25 years of coaching. I loved it. I loved watching the boys.

“When they start to really believe how good they can be and take the shackles off, as I saw on Tuesday, then I'm looking forward to the fans seeing that version of us.

“As a coach, you're constantly assessing what you're seeing in front of you. The attitude was first class. There was a competitiveness about it that didn't spill over into anything untoward.

“They were really competitive in the way that they trained: the standard and the quality.

“For me, I'm big on creativity and players expressing themselves.

“They did that on Tuesday. It's something that I keep talking to them about. I love people showing the best version of themselves.

“I think there are a lot of footballers that probably play football, get to the end of their careers and go, ‘I wish I'd expressed myself more. I wish I'd let myself play this pass a little bit more or try this trick in the right areas’.

“I want the players to show what they've got, what they've spent years practising, when it comes to three o'clock on a Saturday.

“To see them play as well as they did on Tuesday in a really competitive environment. They came off the training pitch buzzing. It was great to see their faces.

“The final little game that we did ended up as a draw. They don't like draws in training. I pulled them in and they said, ‘Can we have another game?’ I said, ‘No, because today's football is the winner’. It was a wonderful day.

“I went home absolutely buzzing with it - as good as I've felt for a long time in training. I hope that we can recreate that in our gameplay more and more often.

“I hope that the fans get to see a little bit of what I saw on Tuesday.”

More: Gills skipper back in contention ahead of weekend trip

Dobson was on media duty again this Thursday ahead of their weekend game at Grimsby - effortlessly taking on the figurehead role with Gareth Ainsworth out recuperating.

While the press conference was going on, the players were enjoying a lively gym session.

“You can hear the noise and I like it,” said the Gills assistant.

“The energy brings noise. The emotion of it all is really good at the moment.

“They're a really good group to work with. Really good people.

“First and foremost, we wanted to cement the team around good people. We've certainly got that.

“A lot of the nine games at the end of last season was part of that process, to see who the people were behind the players. They're a great group to work with. Honest, hard-working bunch.

“What I really love about the place, and you can't say this about everywhere, the players desperately want to play for the club.

“They desperately want to build something that represents this club.

“They all want to do something together. That means a lot to us. Hopefully it means plenty to them. I know it does.”