Gillingham winger Hakeeb Adelakun is beginning to get back to playing his kind of football.

Adelakun admits the last few years have been tough without regular football which has held him back on the pitch. He’s now happy to be working with a manager who gives him the freedom to do what he does best.

He said: “My ambition is to really let myself flow a bit more because it has been a bit stop-start for me, it is about me finding my personality again and getting back to what I love doing, which is attacking and feeling free within myself.

“Since from a kid, the excitement for me has always been taking on players, just making stuff happen, I get a thrill out of it, even watching it on TV. I watch countless football [games] and that is the kind of stuff I am drawn to.

“Over the past few years this is probably the first run of games I have had consistently. Even if you are training, you can lose your flow in matches, it is about getting out of it and back to what you do best.”

Adelakun has started Gills' last six games, in all competitions.

The 26-year-old admits being in and out of teams hasn’t done much for his confidence.

He was at Lincoln previously, starting his second season there before moving to the Gills on loan in August. Prior to that he was at Bristol City for three years, playing just seven league games for them as he was loaned out to Rotherham and then Hull City. It’s been some time since he was a regular at Scunthorpe, who he helped to promotion from this division.

“It is about finding something that makes you tick which is what I have been searching for,” he said.

“The manager (Neil Harris) is brilliant, he tells me to float around and get on the ball and make sure what I am doing is positive, which is brilliant for me, it is exactly what I want to hear.

"Defensively he gives you positions to help the team out and where he wants you but going forward he leaves that up to us attacking players to make stuff work and happen, it is what you want to be involved in, especially when it starts flowing, you will see there is fluidity in the team.”

He feels they are starting to gel more as an attacking unit now on the training field and is looking forward to that being shown when it matters.

He said: “Once we click we will be a force but it is just getting to that point. People are still getting to know each other but there is still time to turn it around and I think we will do that.

“It has started to happen, not in games, but we are working a lot on the training pitch to get that attacking flow, with relationships building, so when I am doing something other players know what I am doing. It is starting to happen, it is just relaying that to game situations and I think that is going to come.

“We’re gelling more, it’s becoming second nature and that is a positive.”