Gillingham forward Josh Parker loves the freedom the players are given under manager Steve Lovell.

Parker put in a man-of-the-match performance on Tuesday night against Oxford in the Checkatrade Trophy and was unlucky not to get on the scoresheet in the second half.

He said: “When someone gives you the chance to express yourself you are going to enjoy it.

“I would say I have more freedom (under Lovell). I feel that certain managers, when they are feeling nervous, they put that nervousness onto the players, whether by shouting a lot or talking a lot and I don’t really respond to that myself.

“I prefer someone to say ‘go and play and if you do wrong, I will tell you. If you do well I will say so’.

“I don’t need people to tell me how to play football because that is something I have been doing all my life. It is like me telling a chef how to cook.

“The gaffer has said ‘go and play football, like you have always done it, you have ability, go and show it.’ It’s as simple as that.

“On the pitch he allows us to rectify our mistakes because we are grown men and we should know how to rectify issues on the pitch.

“If he sees something tactical, formation-wise, he will change it and we go again but he knows he doesn’t need to dig us out. We know when we are doing well or not.”

Parker is now focusing on Saturday’s match at Plymouth, a team sitting bottom of the table, just three points behind the Gills.

But despite the positions, Parker doesn’t regard it as a fight for survival in League 1.

He said: “We (the players) don’t see it as a relegation scrap. We know we are better than the relegation battle.

“The beginning of the season put us in a situation but if you judge it on the form since the gaffer (Steve Lovell) has come in, then you would say we would be out of it.

“The boys almost know it. In our minds we know that against any team home or away they aren’t going to beat us."

Read the full interview in Thursday's Medway Messenger