The Shouting Men column with Gillingham midfielder Callum Reilly
00:00, 03 August 2018
Pre-season serves a purpose, to get fit, but we are all professionals and competitive people and we live for those games where there are three points on the line.
It’s what we are all looking forward to this weekend at Accrington.
They are coming up riding a crest of a wave, after promotion from League 2, and so it is going to be a tough game for us.
We know we are going to have to graft and grind but we are prepared to do that.
As a team, I don't think we are putting a ceiling on anything that we can achieve this year, we are just going to try and start the season as well as we can and that gives you a great platform, we can then re-evaluate things after the start of the season.
For myself, I would like to contribute more in terms of goals and get myself in the right position to do that. If that doesn't come but the team are still doing well than that is the main thing.
It was a big decision for me to make over the summer, where to sign.
Factored into it was the time I had here towards the end of last season, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I knew the lads as well and sometimes that can play a massive part.
Sorting out a new contract is part and parcel of football and you do get used to it. There are lot more stressful things in life that you could have to deal with and it has worked out well for me. I am looking forward to starting the season with Gillingham.
Football can be quite a ruthless business; you can't control a lot of things in football and it is not worth getting too stressed about, especially when you have things to look forward to over summer. I had a wedding to take my mind off it, which did help.
I knew something was close to being sorted here but it was just about making sure everything was right. We managed to get away in time to have a honeymoon and get back for the start of football and so the timing and planning was perfect and I have to give my wife credit for that, although I'm not sure she's seen the phone bill yet from when we were away!
Gillingham is obviously a fair distance for me to come but the big thing for me was knowing I've been here previously and I knew the coach.
Sometimes when you go to a completely different place it can take time to adjust but here I could just fit straight in and hopefully continue where we were last season, with some of the performances that I was able to put in.
I enjoyed my time here and played some on my best football and so that was the logic behind returning.
Read more from Callum in this week's Medway Messenger newspaper