Gillingham’s management team were forced to clear their own training ground so they could prepare in some way for this weekend’s trip to Burton.

Gills boss Andy Hessenthaler was out with a shovel on Monday morning clearing snow from the Beechings Cross venue after being forced to scrap the day’s training due to a covering of snow.

Hessenthaler (pictured) was determined to get his players out on Tuesday and with the help of first team coach Nicky Southall, the two club physios, development manager Mark Patterson and the two groundsmen, they managed to clear a surface to work on.

"Someone has to do it," said Hessenthaler. "That’s the level we are at and we haven’t the man power to compete with some of these other so-called bigger clubs at the other level.

"After looking at the training ground on Monday we gave the players a day off because of the weather situation. We couldn’t get indoors with them and there are a lot of players who can’t train indoors because of the hard surface, it’s not ideal for a few of them.

"If we left the snow on we would have been struggling to train again on Tuesday. It wasn’t going anywhere because of the temperature. So we decided to go out there and clear half of a pitch with shovels and that’s what we’ve done.

"It’s not ideal but there is an area for us to get some kind of training done. It is difficult to get any specific work done and it’s quite firm. The danger was that by clearing it it would freeze overnight but I went down at 8am and although it was a little firm, the sun was out, so we can do a little work."

Hessenthaler has used indoor facilities, including his own 4-4-2 venue, while they also have the option to train on a local 3G surface but the Gills boss knows that can pose its own problems.

He said: "We’ve used a 3G pitch but it’s not ideal because of the inconsistency of the surface.

"I am very wary of playing indoors and last year while training indoors we lost Chris Palmer for most of the season through an injury. He got his foot caught and on the training ground it probably wouldn’t have happened. That’s the worry indoors and on the 3G surface. You can pick up injuries. So it’s quite a frustrating time when the weather is like this."