Boss Justin Edinburgh will spend the summer rebuilding Gillingham’s defence.

The Gills manager has released a handful of defenders and admitted some of those decisions were the toughest he had faced in management.

Following left-back Joe Martin out of Priestfield are central defender Leon Legge and right-back Gavin Hoyte.

With QPR loan defender Max Ehmer also leaving, Edinburgh only has two senior defenders remaining, in John Egan and Callum Davies.

The clear-out was not easy, he admitted: “There are always tough decisions to be made, when releasing players, but in terms of going forward I felt it was the right decision for myself and the club to go forward.

“Allowing Leon Legge and Gavin Hoyte to go was probably the toughest decision I’ve made in my management career because they have played the majority of the games since I have taken over.

“I feel we need to go in a different direction. They are tough decisions but the right ones to call.”

Also departing Priestfield is midfielder Danny Galbraith, who failed to feature in the season run-in. It is now down to Edinburgh to put together a team which can better last season’s 12th place.

“I am confident that the people we can bring into the club will take us that step further forward,” said the manager.

“I stick by my decisions that they are the right ones and it is a chance for me to add my own personnel to the group and if we get that right then we can be very competitive next season.

“We have allowed these players to leave and it does free up finances to add to the squad. We have a busy time ahead and we will look forward to it. Hopefully we can go and recruit the players we want to bring to the club.”

See Monday's Medway Messenger for the full story