A positive night at Gillingham’s fans’ forum - but a question about former chairman Paul Scally was one of the first topics to be answered.

The Galinsons, Brad and Shannon, were on stage - alongside the management team and chief operating officer Paul Fisher - giving fans an insight into exciting plans ahead as they look to bring the club into the modern era.

Thursday night’s Q&A was jovial, informative and light-hearted at times, but one question that came early doors was expected - quizzing the club bosses on Mr Scally’s recent talkSPORT interview which didn’t go down well after his criticism of supporters.

The club's new owners, along with Mr Fisher, have been keen to engage with supporters, appearing on fan podcasts, forums and listening to opinion. It’s a new way and Mr Galinson addressed the topic of Mr Scally.

“Well, we didn’t expect that question would be coming!” quipped the American owner, setting the tone of the night early on. “The club did not know about it until (the fans) knew about it. We dealt with it internally.

“Hopefully there is no doubt, certainly from anyone this side of the club and the fans, that the community and the fans are this club. Shannon and I certainly feel that is the most paramount thing about this club, why we became involved, feeling the positivity on both sides, that doesn’t change. It’s been dealt with, the stuff to focus on is the positivity going forward.”

The night swiftly moved on to a more positive nature.

Mr Galinson was asked about investing capital into the club and he spoke about their desire to keep the Gills sustainable. He said: “I am a firm believer in sustainability. What I don’t want to get sucked into is what other clubs have done, putting in huge amounts of money for artificially high wages, sometimes gets success and sometimes not, but inevitably it falls off the edge of a cliff.

“We need to grow appropriately to the fanbase and the turnover.”

Since taking over at the end of 2022, Mr Galinson said that the turnaround has “gone better than expected - performances on the pitch and off it - beyond our expectation."

He added: “We are not done yet, we have 25% of the season left. There is still a lot of exciting stuff to do, we will have an extremely busy summer. Staying in the league is great, but it’s not a great position to be in. The position we want to be in is ‘do we go up automatically or go to Wembley?! That is what we want this team to do.”

Commenting on the budget for next season, the American chairman joked: “As long as my fellow American Ryan Reynolds (owner at National League Wrexham) doesn’t come up we should be able to compete!

“But seriously, to make sure this team goes in the right direction, spending ridiculous money is not the smart way to go, whatever we need or can reasonably afford with the size of our business. It is not a lack of capital, it is more of ‘how big and how quickly can this organisation support whatever budget is needed to be competitive in league 2.’”

The night kicked off with a question over season tickets, and Mr Fisher says they will be fully transferable in the future and will be "priced at less than what the standard price was last year" - with other benefits such as discount in the shop. He confirmed the club’s Mega Store - closed during Covid - will be reopened.

Season tickets for 2023/24 should be launched in the next couple of weeks, with an interest-free staged payment plan.

New kits, once again made by Macron, will be launched soon, Mr Fisher said: “We are big believers in tradition - two of the kits will be very much based on tradition while Joe (Comper, commercial manager) has got his way on a third kit that he thinks fans are going want to buy!”

Mr Galinson spoke of plans ahead in the short-term and the club will be installing LED advertising around the perimeter of the pitch.

“It is important for two reasons,” he said. “One, it looks really cool, more legit, the other is that it is really our only real estate that we can sell to business and sponsors around the community. There are 20 boards right now and that opens it up to 100-150 sponsors.”

The club’s Factory Bar is busy on matchdays and in future an area behind the Rainham End is to get an upgrade, with TVs installed and turnstiles opened early as a new venue to get a drink and something to eat - a facility open to ticket holders from all areas of the ground.

Mr Galinson said they would be glad to put in a new stand - replacing the current Town End - “once we keep selling out the current seats.”

Improving the matchday is experience is a key aspiration.

Mr Fisher said: “Hopefully the experience has improved over the last few weeks but it is nowhere near where we want it to be. We want fans to be able to meet, get a ‘Dodger Dog’ - there might be a few hot dogs around the place. We want to majorly improve the experience in the ground.”

The scoreboard is something that is being looked at. The current one above the Gordon Road Stand is difficult to read and bringing in giant TV screens on the corners of the main stand is something being looked at.

The club have been subject to referrals to the EFL and FA over fan abuse of late - leading to the club releasing a statement this week. Supporters will soon be able to report abuse anonymously through a dedicated text service.

Mr Fisher said: “I read from someone that we are becoming woke - we aren’t becoming woke - it’s a football ground, clearly there is passion among the fans but I do think people have crossed the line, stuff that in the modern world is unacceptable and it has to stop.”

Shannon Galinson spoke passionately about female involvement in the game and the return of a female side, saying: “As a game we embrace #hergametoo because it works to eradicate sexism in sport, so that players, staff, fans who are female feel comfortable engaging in football whichever way, coming to a match or playing. We all play a part in being aware of abusive language on matchdays.

“We are looking at and looking to improve, engaging women and girls is one of them, we will look towards improving programming for young girls, we will look towards the idea of a women’s team.

“We are having multiple conversations, we have had great conversations with the folks who are currently hosting our old team, the Gillingham Women, we have chatted about it but no decision has been made. We are looking at other avenues as well. I don’t know when it will be - we will do what works well for the club. It will happen. It is important to me personally.”

The owners were asked their opinion of manager Neil Harris.

Mr Galinson spoke of Harris being a “class man” adding: “The manager sets the tone for the whole club, the dressing room, the positivity, how the players are respected, rather than being yelled and and degraded, or pressured. Fans are seeing that the club is in a more positive place and he sets the tone.”

Harris himself spoke about future aspirations, saying: “We want to be an aggressive Gillingham side that fears nobody, that can beat anybody, home and away, ideally we want two systems of play for next season and it’s my job to coach both.

“We will mix between the two when we feel it appropriate. Ideally at this club that system will be two centre forwards on the pitch. This year we’ve done what we can to make sure we pick points up against bottom teams and top teams, moving forward we are not going to fear anyone next season.”

Fan representation on the club’s board was discussed with Mr Galinson preferring a more informal approach, saying: “What would be more relevant is if we could have a fan representative in meetings about decisions and strategy, let’s ask specific fans about those things. We want fan input about strategic decisions about the club. Fans are more astute than we are sometimes.”

Mr Galinson - from Tampa, Florida - spoke of his love of American sports, including the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team and the LA Lakers - having grown up in that part of America. Mr Fisher says he plans to take the US owner to see Kent play in the County Championship this coming season to get a taste of cricket.

Mr Fisher also confirmed that the stadium will remain cashless, community events are being considered and a pre-season tour is on the cards - with club bosses out in France today (Friday) exploring options. Mr Galinson said: “There will be something fun - the Tampa Rowdies are ready to go if we fly out there!”