Steve Lovell hopes to see the Gills continue to improve even if he won’t be there to help.

The first team coach holds no grudge against anyone at the club despite being told his services would no longer be needed.

Lovell said: “I respect the manager’s decision. He is the manager and I can’t do anything about it. I am gutted and disappointed and don’t really know the reasons why but it is something I respect.

“Like everyone knows, I love the football club, I always will do. I love the chairman and always respected him and understand everything about him, but it is not me who has made this decision, it has been made for me. I am gutted.

“I wish the club every success, the manager and assistant and all the players, all of whom text me and said how sorry they are to see me go.

“I had a great rapport with the players, I worked very well with them and enjoyed my time with them but it is something that the manager wants. I said to him I will never bear any grudges, I never have done in football; I know what football is all about.

“I am very disappointed and saddened that I will no longer be working at this time with the football club.”

Welshman Lovell, who scored 104 goals in 275 matches as a player for the Gills, was a key figure in the caretaker management team that brought stability to the club in the wake of Peter Taylor’s sacking at the end of 2014.

He also helped with the interview process as the Gills eventually chose Justin Edinburgh as the permanent successor to Taylor.

Since then Lovell has worked as first team coach at Gillingham, stepping up from his role as youth team manager.

Lovell said: “We took over last year and did alright. We got the club back on track and then we were part of the process that got the manager in.

“We, along with the chairman, thought that was the right way to go and we all bought into it. We accepted it and worked with it. I have backed the manager all the way, worked with him and done nothing but support him.

“I have been at the club 20 years, on and off, as a player, coach, community officer, under-18 coach, under-17 coach and it is a club I love.

“I am not there anymore and I feel very disappointed but I will wish them all the best and hope the club goes forward and that they are successful. I know the chairman will back the manager and help him along the way. I hope they achieve what they should do.”

Lovell is now looking to get back into the game quickly.

He said: “I still want to be involved in football and will try my upmost to get as soon as I can. Hopefully I will do that soon and be back working in the game that I love.”