Gillingham boss Mark Bonner believes he’s got the backing of those at the top as they seek to get their promotion chase back on track.

A poor run of form has led to frustration amongst the supporters, many of whom are hoping this year can be one of success in League 2.

Bonner’s confident that will still happen and only recently chairman Brad Galinson shared his views over social media that he remains confident in the team that’s been put together.

Bonner said: “They (owners) have been around for a week or so, so I see them every day. I speak to them all the time. I think we're all in exactly the same boat really.

“Number one, we're all frustrated that we haven't won for a while. Number two, we all think we've got a group of people that can take the club forward. Number three, we're really impatient and we want it to happen quickly.

“Number four, we balance that by understanding we know it takes time and the development of this team, squad, club is going to take time. That means transfer windows and it means development time and it means time for change.

“I think everybody just understands that the cycle of just constantly changing at the top of the club, it rarely works.

“It might work for a few weeks but it rarely works for longer term. Anything you want to build takes time. I think everybody's understanding that.”

Bonner joined in the summer, replacing Stephen Clemence at the helm, with a clear mandate to get the Gills promoted from League 2 ASAP.

A fine start was followed by a miserable October that saw the team lose five games in a row, a run of results that was ended with a point at Swindon.

They take on league leaders Port Vale at Priestfield this Saturday.

“We're desperate to win and do well and get better,” said the Gills boss.

“I think the senior management of the club, the owners, myself, the staff, I think we all realise that we're doing some really good work.

“Some of our good work hasn't necessarily been rewarded yet but it will do. I think Brad, myself, Shannon (Galinson), Joe (Comper), Kelly (Derham) who speak regularly, Kenny (Jackett), Hess (Andy Hessenthaler), we're all on the same page really, what we're trying to do and it will take a bit of time to get there.

“We know that we need one or two of the (injured players) that are out to come back and to help and all those things. But I think overall we're just hugely excited about what could be and confident about that as well.

“I think we've got a real belief that we're going to get where we want to get to and we've just got to sometimes be a little patient and realise we're not even a third through the season yet.

“We're in a bad run. If you change the order of all our results and you said, ‘alright, two points off the play-offs, 14 games, loads of injuries, a whole new change of staff’, it's not a disaster, it's okay, we'd love to be a bit better off.

“You have to detach yourself sometimes and think like that and then other times you have to be really in the moment and go, ‘do better’, and we probably jump in and out of those two emotions.”

An FA Cup defeat at home to Blackpool last weekend extended the run of losses at Priestfield to four games. Their last success at ME7 came against Clemence’s Barrow side at the end of September.

Bonner, in a message to the club’s supporters, said: “Our record here over the early part of the season was very good and then we've had a bad spell here so keep coming, keep supporting, keep pushing us, keep driving us, stick with us.

“No one wants to be on the run that we are on and you've got some really good people that are very very good at their jobs trying to help this football club become better. You don't always see the result of that immediately and, sometimes actually you see the opposite of that, but it will pay off because we've got too many good people here for it not to.”