Gillingham manager Steve Lovell hopes to end a difficult year on a high.

And a 4-1 home win over Bristol Rovers on Saturday was the perfect way to get a hectic schedule started.

The Gills have five more games to play before the year is out, starting at Carlisle on Tuesday night in their FA Cup second round replay.

Lovell said: “I read somewhere that it hasn’t been a great calendar year for Gillingham and it will be nice to finish off on a high note, going into the Christmas period and build on it for the new year.

“I am pleased the supporters have seen that performance and goals (against Rovers). We have performed quite well at home without winning games but we finished the (chances) off on Saturday and that was nice.

“I am pleased with the result, pleased to get four goals and it is a good start to the week now, going into Carlisle and Fleetwood (away in the league on Friday night).”

Victory over Rovers moved the Gills out of the relegation zone and up to 19th in League 1, higher than they have been since the opening weeks of the season.

“We have moved up a bit and that is nice progress,” said Lovell, who has lost just two of his 10 league games in charge.

“We have got a very busy period now and if we can continue this bit of form and performances then we will be all right over the Christmas period.”

It has been a huge turnaround under Lovell, who took over the Gills when they were sitting one place off the bottom of the table, with just one league win to their name and five since the start of the year.

He’s now led the Gills to four league wins since replacing Peter Taylor as manager.

Lovell, tasked with saving the Gills from the drop, said: “I hope we can continue this run and get out of the situation. We are doing it.

“It was a good performance (on Saturday) and when we passed the ball around, we did all right. The first quarter of an hour I was a bit disappointed, because we didn’t start well, but credit to the boys, they finished well.”