Gillingham boss Steve Lovell insists his players aren’t in need of a lift.

Results haven’t gone their way of late, picking up just one point from their last four League 1 outings.

They suffered a 2-1 defeat at Barnsley on Saturday but confidence in the camp remains high.

“I haven’t got to rally the players, they rally themselves,” claimed Lovell.

“Results count for everything, but it’s just six games gone and there are another 40 to go.

“At the moment we are building, we have had a hard start to the season against some quality sides and League 1 is a difficult league, any side you play against is a hard team.

“As long as we learn things and the players learn from every game, then we will be better for it, that is what I am most interested in, the players improving individually and if they do that then collectively we will get better.”

Gillingham have played all three sides relegated from the Championship last season, beating Burton but losing to Sunderland and then Barnsley at the weekend.

“It has been mixed,” said Lovell, reflecting on those results. “We beat Burton – beat them well – and we had a good performance against Sunderland, even though it was 4-1. Barnsley first half were brilliant, but half of that was down to us and how we sat off.

“Second half it shows that if you get into people you can stop most teams playing in this league. We will learn. The performance was disappointing first half but very good second.”

Read the full story in Monday's Medway Messenger - part of 8 pages of weekend sporting action