Gills boss Steve Lovell insists his team won’t be holding back against high-flyers Portsmouth this weekend.

His approach won’t change regardless of the opposition.

Lovell, who guided the Gills to their first ever win at Portsmouth last season, said: “Saturday is a good opportunity to take the game to them and have a go.

“Hopefully defensively we will be able to hold out and then create a few more chances ourselves.

“I will never go anywhere just to defend, it doesn't matter who it is, that is just me.

“You might defend all the way through and have a couple of opportunities to score but I think you have to have a go at teams. That is the way I want to play and that is the way I have always played. I have never gone out and thought, ‘right this is a 0-0’, because that very rarely happens.”

The Gills have found points hard to come by since the opening weeks of the season but Lovell hasn’t lost any faith in his methods.

He said: “We just do the same thing week in, week out and we train the same way and we talk to the players the same way. We keep believing in what we believe in.

“I will do it my way and I have always said to the players I will do it my way. Everybody has their own opinion, players have their own ways of thinking things and I am quite willing to listen, but ultimately I will do it the way I want to do it.

“I will set up the way I want to set up, I will defend the way I want us to defend and go forward and play a system I want to play. If I do it and we get success from it then great and if we don't then I am the one that takes all the stick and the buck stops with me, regarding what we do on the training ground and what results we have.

“I can't control the performances of players on a Saturday, that is down to them to perform to their best of their ability.”

The Gills are without a win in their last seven league games and face a Portsmouth team who look set to be challenging for a promotion place this season.

“It doesn't come any bigger does it?” said the manager.

“They are top of the league and we're going to a great ground with a great crowd. It is a great place to go and play and our players will be looking forward to it, I'm sure.

“If we can perform like we did last year there then we will quite likely to get a result.”