GILLINGHAM assistant manager John Gorman says boss Andy Hessenthaler is "going nowhere" despite Gills slumping to their seventh consecutive defeat at West Ham on Saturday.

Gorman was quick to rubbish newspaper reports linking other managers with the Priestfield job and said he still had the full backing of everybody at the club.

Gorman said: “He’s got a player’s contract so there’s no way he’s going to be sacked. He’s still a player and he’s been absolutely brilliant. He’s a winner and epitomises the club. I was brought in to help him and if he goes I go. I’m with him.

“The chairman is absolutely brilliant. He’s right behind him. There’s no chance of Andy going anywhere. All that rubbish in the press about different managers - forget about it. Just concentrate on Andy Hessenthaler.”

Gorman praised Hessenthaler’s magnificent performance and added Gillingham showed real spirit in their second-half display but left themselves with too much to do after going into the break 3-1 down.

“At half-time I did more shouting than I’ve ever done but again it shows our spirit,” he said.

“I know West Ham are a good team in this league but we could have folded and lesser teams would gone to pieces. We started off bright and should have lead through Cox who had a good chance but we’ve allowed them to play balls into Zamora and Harewood and allowed them to turn in the box.

“I was disappointed to lose the first goal the way we did. It was a good goal by Bobby but that’s the kind of thing that’s been happening to us. We have a couple of minutes of good play and looking good and then we lose a goal. It was just a long ball up field, a one-on-one and he scored.

“We gave ourselves another mountain to climb but we’re staying positive. Against other teams, West Ham could have won by five or six today. But we showed enough character and played enough good football to stay positive. Two wins in this league and you’re right up there.

“Nobody is going down at this time of the year. We’ve got home games coming up and we’re going to really go for it. We can still see some light at the end of the tunnel but we’ve got to go and get some results.”