Gillingham coach Steve Lovell insists there is no no.1 in the four-man caretaker team.

Under-18 boss Lovell spoke to the press after Gillingham’s 2-1 defeat to Port Vale.

The Gills’ initial announcement, in the wake of Peter Taylor’s sacking, was that Andy Hessenthaler would be assisted by the coaching staff but Lovell says they’re all in it together as equals.

“Nobody has taken lead roles at all,” said Lovell.

“Whatever we have had to say we have sat down and discussed things. It is nothing different to what we have done anyway because we are always together in our office talking football.

“We put a team together to try and get a result (at Port Vale) and for 92 minutes I thought we had done it. Unfortunately the luck goes against us and they get a goal, but, there were a lot of positives.

“Everyone who travelled up from Gillingham will hopefully have seen that.”

The caretaker team were put in charge following Peter Taylor’s sacking on New Year’s Day.

Since then chairman Paul Scally has been considering applications for a replacement.

“All we know is that in the time we are here we will work very hard, to make sure we push forward,” said Lovell.

“That work has got to be done on the training ground and it will be done until we get it right.

“I am under-18 manager, Mark Patterson is development manager and Andy Hessenthaler is assisting at the moment to try and make things work for us. Darren Hare is academy manager.

“We all know the philosophy of the football club and we all know our onions when it comes to football, we know what we are talking about.

“If someone else comes in, fine, we will step aside and go back to doing our jobs but at the moment we have been asked to do this and we will step in and do the best we can.”