Steve Lovell insists his Gills camp remain united.

The manager has spoken openly in recent weeks of his frustrations following defeats to AFC Wimbledon and Rochdale.

But he said: “We are all in it together, we always have been.

“Things get said out of context at times because we are passionate, but it doesn’t mean to say that we don't all want the same things, that is something that we have always had here.

“I think sometimes results magnify the bad things and you don't think about the good things and there were a lot of good things that happened last Saturday.

“We are not getting carried away with it, we are going to dig in, we are going to make sure that we continue what we are doing but with the two things that sound obvious, we need to start sticking the ball in the net and stop giving goals away, apart from that we have played some really good football.”

Asked how the players have reacted to the criticism, Lovell said: “They have responded really well. I have been in so many dressing rooms where people say ‘oh, he has lost the dressing room’ and I said to the players, ‘there is no way that I will ever lose you lot, because I won't put myself in a position to do that. I am too honest.’

“They can come and talk to me, I will tell them if they are not playing and why they are not playing and more often than not they will know that themselves anyway. I have always earned the respect from the players because I respect them as people. I will never change the way I am.

“I am the same person as I was 12 months ago but when you are walking off the pitch and you are getting the abuse from your own supporters because you have lost a game, or because we haven't performed well, it is as if I have grown three heads, but I am the same person.

"I don't want us to lose games. Some people perceive it as if I want us to fail and that is the only thing with this job that I really get annoyed with. I am the same person that I have always been and I am doing the best job I can to get us higher up the league.

“We work tirelessly here day in day out and at night to try and get it right but because we lose a few games people see you as this ogre, this different person and that is what the game of football does to you.

“It doesn't just happen to me, it is part of the job, but it amazes me how people see it. We don't mean to fail or lose games, we are working for the football club to get better hopefully.”

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