Gillingham boss Steve Lovell will be telling his defenders to take care of their no.1 priority.

He wants his back four to concentrate on defending, first and foremost.

It’s a back to basics approach from the manager as he looks to cut out the sloppy errors that led to them conceding three last weekend at Rochdale.

He said: “We have to start understanding defending because the goals that we conceded on Saturday were bad defensive goals.

“People were not doing defensive jobs and that is what they are there to do.

“It is alright being an attack-minded full-back or a ball-playing centre-half but you have to defend, that is ultimately what you are there for.

“First and foremost it is about being a defender, let the others deal with everything else, that is what you are there for. If you keep a clean sheet you have done your job.

“Nobody that concedes three goals can say they have played well defensively, because we didn't, and that's not just the back four that is everybody but the goals last Saturday came from defenders not doing their defensive duties.”

Only three other sides in League 1 have conceded more than the Gills this season but Lovell will keep chipping away at the problem until it is fixed.

“It has to be something ingrained into you in training,” he said.

“When you are playing five-a-side games you don't want that person you are marking to score a goal, you have to stop him. It is something you have to do every day and the majority of the time they do that, but when it comes to the game, why don't they do it?

“Most probably it is because they are not in the right areas, they are getting pulled out of positions like the first two goals that Ian Henderson scored last Saturday.

“For 90% of the game they most probably do their defensive duties but the 10% of the game they don’t we lose the game. The majority of the time we do defend well but it is just a lack of concentration that has cost us."