The magic of Brian Clough influences Gills assistant boss Paul Raynor to this day.

Raynor spent three-and-a-half years at Nottingham Forest under the legendary manager in the early 1980s, making his debut aged 18.

Clough’s methods left a mark on the young midfielder and Raynor still swears by them at Priestfield.

“It’s just the discipline side and how he got the best out of players,” said Raynor.

“If you look at the great Forest teams, there were very few superstars. It was a workmanlike team, very simple in the way it was set up and letting people express themselves. We try and carry that on to a degree.

“It’s not a difficult game, people can over-complicate it, but it’s just getting the basics right and that’s what he drummed into us.

“Defending, attacking, passing the ball, keeping the ball, marking on corners, just little things he used to tell you.

“He’d say, ‘what are you looking at the ball for, mark the man’ and you’d think, ‘yeah, that’s a point, the ball’s going to come in anyway, just do your job’.”

Raynor says he and manager Steve Evans have their moments when it comes to plotting Gillingham’s success.

But they’re clearly coming up with the right answers after a 15-game unbeaten run.

Raynor said: “We bounce off each other, we argue, but at the end of the day we’re arguing about trying to get the best out of our team.

“We want the best and eventually we’ll decide the best way of doing things.

“We might disagree but once we leave the office and tell the players the information, we’re singing off the same hymn sheet.”

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