FORMER Gillingham boss Tony Pulis has vowed to walk back into Priestfield on Saturday with his head held high insisting he has nothing to be ashamed about.

It’ll be the third time Pulis has been back to Priestfield after visits with Bristol Rovers and Portsmouth since leaving on June 30, 1999.

But despite another scathing attack on him a week ago by chairman Paul Scally, he refused to be drawn into a war of words. He said: “I prefer to accentuate the positives and I had four years of success and enjoyment at Gillingham so the club and its supporters remain very special to me and always will.

“I have no doubt I will take criticism from some on Saturday but I would like to think that the majority will remember all the successes we had together when players like Ade Akinbiyi, Carl Asaba, Robert Taylor, Andy Hessenthaler, Paul Smith and Barry Ashby were scaling the heights.

“Irrespective of what one person is saying, history doesn’t lie and I would say to those having a pop at me to recall the times we had together to get the club out of Division 3 and into Division 1.

“The gates were bigger then they have ever been because we were as one - teams and supporters - all pulling together.”