Danny Kedwell admits the players should take some of the blame for Andy Hessenthaler’s departure.

The 14-goal leading scorer knows the Gills should have done better than eighth this season and it was a finish that cost Hessenthaler his job as manager.

He said: “With the players we had I don’t think there was anyone better than us. Shrewsbury and Crawley got promoted and I thought we were much better than them.

“Swindon (the champions) are a great side but apart from them we had the best team in that league so it’s been frustrating. You have to feel sorry for the gaffer because we should have done better than we did.

“We do feel a bit guilty because we had the quality and if we hadn’t made some stupid mistakes, and won some of the games we should have done, this wouldn’t have happened.

“He is the man who gave me my chance in the Football League and he believed in me so I am gutted for him. He was a very good manager as well.”

Kedwell was particularly disappointed that the strike partnership that Hessenthaler assembled never came to fruition. A season-long injury to Adam Birchall means the pair only played briefly together in pre-season.

“We never had the chance and that’s another thing that went wrong for the gaffer,” reflected Kedwell.

“He had a strike partnership there which could have worked really well and it happened straight away for us in pre-season but then Birchall got injured and it was gutting.”

Kedwell is due to spend some of the summer in Valencia, with keeper Paulo Gazzaniga and his family, before returning to try and break the 20-goal barrier next season.

He said: “I got 14 this season and it wasn’t as much as I wanted at the beginning.

“I wanted to hit the 20-goal mark, but it wasn’t to be and I am sure next year I can get to that point.

“It’s my first season in the Football League and when I first moved to AFC Wimbledon in the Conference I only got 15 goals. Then in the next two seasons I got 25 and 26, so hopefully that repeats itself."