Martin Allen believes his biggest result this season has been to halt the club’s stuttering home form.

The Gills lost just one of their opening nine home league matches of the season but won just two of their next nine, in a run of form that saw them lose their lead at the top of the table.

Gillingham have since found the winning formula at home again and with points coming regularly away from Priestfield, Allen’s side are once more out in front at the top of League 2.

It was a testing time for Allen and one of his biggest management challenges.

Allen (pictured) said: "Behind the scenes, we stayed calm and cool, we haven’t panicked, we have continued to support our players and look after them and then work on a way of making it better.

"The players have been fantastic and receptive to that and I must say that has probably been for me, personally, my own biggest challenge in football management. How were we going to cope with it and manage it?"

"We would go back to the basics and that’s what we did. It was my job to guide them and take them through those tricky times. It probably makes the recent wins even better."

Read more of Martin Allen's thoughts on turning around the home form in this Friday's Medway Messenger newspaper.