Gillingham manager Mark Stimson believes his side’s back-to-back away wins will be the springboard to a successful promotion bid.

The Gills have moved into the play-off places after beating Morecambe and Port Vale with performances that have thrilled Stimson.

He said: “This team has now got youth, energy and pace and also a bit of steel about them and those are the ingredients you need.

“The more pace you’ve got, the more chance you’ve got and we’ve got an abundance of that. Andy Barcham, Simeon Jackson, Dennis Oli, Adam Miller and Curtis Weston just went away from people (at Port Vale).

“There’s nothing worse as a defender to have to chase people and when you have that in your team it’s an outlet.”

However, the victories have hindered Stimson’s plans to bring loan signings to the club – as he can’t guarantee them first-team football.

Stimson said: “If I brought anyone in this week, apart from Kaka, I wouldn’t drop anyone. I would keep the same team and I’m telling clubs that.

“They’ll say ‘you can have him but he has to play’ and that can’t happen because we’ve just had two great away wins and some decent performances before that.

“You have to be honest with these teams but once you say that, players don’t want to drop down a division or two to sit on the bench. It’s a tricky one.”

Stimson is keen to bring in Arsenal’s young left-back Rene Steer on loan after he impressed in that game.

He is still chasing the loan signing of Charlton’s Chris Dickson but feels the deal is now down to the player’s agent, who has spoken with a number of League 1 teams.

“We’re just waiting for a yes or no and it’s the agent who has to make the call unfortunately and he’s not returning calls,” said Stimson.

“If a club above would take him he would probably join them. I said to him, if they’re not involved would you come to us and he said 'yes'."