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Gillingham winger Mark Marshall insists there’s no need to panic - and he should know.
Marshall was part of a Charlton team that got promoted from League 1 last season, playing in half of their fixtures.
The Addicks had a rocky start themselves, losing their season opener and winning just one of their first five games. They ended the campaign by winning promotion at Wembley.
“I am not hitting the panic button just yet,” said the 32-year-old Gillingham newcomer.
“At Charlton, we lost our first game. Team cohesion and hard work is going to get us to where we need to go.
“In this league I wouldn’t say there are any world beaters so if you apply yourself correctly you can get something out of the games. Work rate and discipline is the biggest thing. At this level you will have inconsistency but if you can make that as minimal as possible we will pick up more points than not.
“You can’t judge the table until about 10 games in, we might go on and eight game run and be up there. After 10 games you can start judging the table, you can see if things are starting to gel or going bad and then you can say something needs to change.
“It is early, the manager will be trying to bring players in and get players fitter and seeing what suits the team best.”
Marshall was one of eight players making their first league starts at Priestfield on Saturday.
He said: “It’s early in the season, if we can eradicate the mistakes and put in some good performances, we can shoot up the league, there is nothing to panic about, we have some good players.
“People are still gelling and it’s about building up an understanding with everyone and when that comes I am pretty sure we will start creating more chances and things will start flowing.”
Marshall didn’t have a full pre-season himself, having been released by Charlton in the summer. He joined the Gills midway through their summer camp.
He said: “It is about getting used to each other and getting fit and I am pretty sure that once I get that, and one or two other boys get that, we can do something.
“There are things we can iron out. It didn’t go to plan on Saturday but it’s a long season, if you get disappointed after one result it’s going to be a very long season.
“We need to take this one, analyse it, look back at what we could improve.
“It’s a process and some processes take a longer time than others. I am sure once the boys play more together, train together, the manager is putting patterns of play together and everyone start to gel, I am sure everything will come together.”
Manager Steve Evans was disappointed with their performance on Saturday, criticising some for a lack of effort.
“His words were honest,” said Marshall.
“As a player you have to be able to take that because if you falter under words or that kind of pressure then you can’t go out there and perform infront of 4-5,000 people.
“He is an honest individual and he said he wasn’t happy with the performance, things can improve and we will work hard on that.
“I am pretty sure we will come good.”
