Gillingham boss Steve Lovell admits they might have to abandon their footballing principles in order to rectify their home form.

A sticky surface has made it tough for the Gills to show the same kind of quality that they have done on their travels under Lovell.

Four of his five wins have come away from home.

The Gills rescued a point against Oxford United on Boxing Day, at Priestfield, after going more direct. There could now be more of the same when AFC Wimbledon visit on Saturday.

Lovell said: “The pitch is like a bog but nothing can be done.

“We have had a lot of rain and the groundstaff do a brilliant job. They’ve got what they have to work with.

“I am asking players to go and play football and we do but when they knock it into people and it’s bobbling all over the place, it doesn’t help.

What do I do? Do I change the way we play at home and go more direct? That is what I did second half (against Oxford).

“I said (to the players) ‘you can’t play football out there, just turn them, get it into the front men and we get the second balls.’ That is what we had to do second half. It is foreign to the way we want to play."

Read more from Steve Lovell in this week's Medway Messenger newspaper.