Ady Pennock has spoken out about the ‘poison’ from within the dressing room at Gillingham.

Pennock took over as head coach of the Gills in January – replacing sacked boss Justin Edinburgh – but found himself up against plenty of obstacles from day one.

He said: “Someone said to me I should write a book about the last 14 weeks. People won’t believe what has been going on.

“It has been unbelievably tough.

“There has been discontent 100%. There has been some poison there, some lads who don’t care, which bothers me massively. It showed.

“There has been a lot going on, I can assure people, but it will never happen again while I am here.”

He ended up letting several players go this season, including QPR loan striker Jay Emmanuel-Thomas.

More on Gills

Nelson: Rot set in last season

Edinburgh snubs Ady

Pennock added: “We want players in who will die for this football club.

“You can have an off day but you have to work hard, it should be a given.

“We got rid of some players who shouldn’t be there and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas was one of them.”

Pennock has a list of players he wants to sign and believes they will offer a lot more than some who he inherited.

He said: “I want good footballers to come in and to wear the shirt with pride.”