Gillingham assistant manager John Schofield writes exclusively for the KM Group every week
08:00, 31 January 2014
We’ve got a number of weapons at our disposal now in our squad.
We made changes off the bench at Brentford and those players coming on all had a positive impact on the team. Young Jack Marriott looked bright, Adebayo Akifenwa caused problems and so did Bradley Dack.
We’ve also got young Connor Smith waiting for his chance and that means we have extra options to change things when needed. It’s just about knowing what you have in your armoury and when to utilise it.
We took a lot of positives out of that Brentford game and the players gave a decent account of themselves.
We were disappointed not to have got something out of the game. We’ve got great options at the moment and it’s about getting that balance right and selecting the right weapon.
There are still a number of games getting called off because of the weather. Port Vale’s game on Tuesday night was one of them and we had been planning to watch that one ahead of this weekend’s game.
The pitch at Brentford last week wasn’t great but everyone is finding it tough.
Obviously, you want a nice flat playing surface, you want it rolled and covered in grass but it all comes with consequences. When you roll it and make it nice and flat, then the water doesn’t soak in either.
There is a lot of hard work going on with all the ground-staff. Everyone seems to be having the same problem. You can’t get equipment on the pitch because it is too heavy but you have to do the best you can.
During training, we have to try and find an area that isn’t too wet and when you are doing functional stuff, it’s nice to have the right markings, to make it more realistic.
Read the full column in this Friday's Medway Messenger