by Luke Cawdell

Hard work is key to Gillingham rekindling their winning form, insists captain Andy Frampton.

The skipper returned to the team at Accrington Stanley on Saturday but witnessed another defensive nightmare in the 4-3 defeat.

"We are beating ourselves at the moment and that has to stop," said the 32-year-old, who was back in the side following an ankle injury.

"Everyone is going to have to knuckle down and work hard.

"In my career, personally, I find that if you work harder when the chips are down you get your rewards and that’s what everyone is going to have to do.

"At the beginning of the season I said there would be tough times and we are in one at the moment. We need to make sure it turns round for us – and quickly."

Frampton (pictured) described the side’s opening half as "awful" but drew a little comfort from the way they responded after the break.

"We are bitterly disappointed," he said. "We were awful in the first half and in the second we went out to prove how we can play and how we should have played in the first half.

"We had no excuses, we were well below par to what we wanted from our trip."

It was the team’s third straight defeat in League 2 but Frampton knows that as the captain he needs to assist in picking the team up.

He said: "Younger lads will look up to me to see how I react and I will hopefully come back with a positive outlook on it and make sure we go again next week.

"There are no cracks at all in our changing room and we are very together."