by Luke Cawdell

Gillingham manager Andy Hessenthaler admits his side’s hopes of automatic promotion are fading.

The Gills are 11 points off the top three in League 2, having played a game more. They have also lost their last three games, conceding 10 goals in the process.

Hessenthaler (pictured) said: "We are making it harder now to get into that top three with those performances.

"We are having a proper slump at the moment and we need to now go and win 10 games on the bounce if we are going to do anything this season. It’s a bit of a statement with 19 games to go.

"We have shown this season that we are capable of getting results. Where do we go from here? We’ve got to now stand up and be counted. We are in a bit of a rut. We are scoring goals but we just can’t defend.

"We need to turn it around. We said before the game that we had 20 wars. We have lost one and we have 19 left. We have to get out of this, be men, and like I said last week we need to make sure it doesn’t fizzle out and we end up mid-table and it’s another season gone by without getting back to where we want to be."

Hessenthaler, who is halfway through his three -year contract with the Gills, remains adamant that he can put things right.

"Football does change very quickly," he said. "It’s not acceptable and so we have to do something about it. We said we would do something this weekend, we haven’t, so we have to next weekend.

"I am the manager. I have managed for over 300 games and I am not inexperienced, I know what I am doing.

"Players and other people might think I don’t know what I am doing but that’s for them to make that opinion."

He added: "I have the club at heart massively and I stood on that line Saturday feeling physically sick for those people behind the goal."