Matin Allen was pleased to see his players shake of some of their summer excesses after a tough training camp in France.

The Gills boss took the majority of the first team to Le Touquet last week ahead of a busy period of pre-season fixtures.

Allen said: "The players worked hard, on and off the field, with their team bonding exercises and they worked long hours on the training pitch, on the beaches, in the sea, in the swimming pool and we came back with no injuries.

"We were often doing three sessions a day, 7.30am, 10.30am and 4pm and so it was full on and a lot of work.

"There was a lot of work done with the strength and conditioning coach and a lot of work with John Schofield on their technical work with Mark Patterson. The physios came home having hardly done a stroke of work which is great news.

"The whole group have got stronger. They’ve lost weight and the whole group have got fitter and stronger quickly.

"Their dedication during the week has been superb. I couldn’t have asked for any more of them."

It wasn’t all hard work, though, as the team got to spend time bonding socially, in Allen’s own special way.

He said: "We all played some children’s games like Pictionary and Frustration and games of cards and that was all good fun to do."