Striker Adam Birchall is hoping a move to non-league Bromley will reignite his career.

A serious knee injury robbed him of the chance to impress at Gillingham but the 29-year-old has left Priestfield with his head held high. He was released in May after three years with the Gills.

Birchall said: “It didn’t go the way I wanted it to but I am sure if I hadn’t had the injury it would have gone differently.

“I think back on the nice things that happened to me there. Winning the league will be up there as one of the highlights of my whole career.

“Another highlight was playing in League 1 this year. I didn’t play often but I did all right when I played.

“I am not one to be negative. I am disappointed and feel that had I got on a roll, then I could have shown what I can do but I just couldn’t get going.

“For me it’s about finding my feet again and hitting the back of the net. I need to get back into that rhythm and Bromley look like a club going forward. I am confident I will come back and do what I am good at.”

Birchall joined Gillingham in July 2011 from Dover, after scoring 45 goals in one season.

The chance to make an impact under Andy Hessenthaler ended after suffering a ruptured cruciate ligament in pre-season. He missed the entire 2011/12 season and on his return, Hessenthaler had been sacked and Martin Allen was in charge.

Birchall said: “Quite rightly, he was unsure of me because he didn’t sign me. I had been injured for 15 months and then I spent another five or six trying to prove to the manager that I could do something for him.”

He played 19 games under Allen. Towards the end of the 2012/13 campaign, he felt his form was coming back but even a good pre-season wasn’t enough to convince the manager.

Birchall was loaned to Dartford and when he returned, at the start of this year, the Gills had another new manager and he was back to square one under Peter Taylor.

“Peter Taylor said he was really impressed with me and said he was going to throw me in sooner or later,” Birchall said.

“He wanted to use me but we were in a tricky situation and he had a group of players who he had been working with a few months before I came back off loan. He had built up a way of playing with them.

“It makes you proud when someone like Peter Taylor says he really rates you. Martin Allen said the same and that’s why I hung around. I really wanted to play League 1 football, even if it was for a few minutes.

"Normally if someone comes on for a minute, at the end of a game, they are like ‘oh, for God’s sake’ but I was over the moon for that minute, I was so happy.

“When I came on against Leyton Orient, in my final game, the fans were all singing my name and it was really special to me.

“I had a good bond with them, they were great. I just felt I needed something to spark it off and I didn’t get the minutes to do it.

“Gillingham and the chairman Paul Scally really looked after me while I was out for 15 months and I had the right mindset to get me through it.

“People say the knee is the heartbeat of a footballer. Now my body is right, my knee is right and I want to get on doing what I am good at. Hopefully that will start again.”