The recent break did Gillingham no favours, says goalkeeper Stuart Nelson following the 4-0 defeat to Bolton.

Monday’s game at the Macron Stadium was Gillingham’s first since beating Rochdale 3-0 on November 26.

Nelson was making his 200th start for the club and said: “The 16-day break hasn’t helped us.

“We had three wins from our last four going into it and built up a nice bit of momentum and started to turn a corner.

“It was positive over the two weeks, we’ve done a lot of work that we needed to do.

“I just think the hard work we put into those four games, with that long a gap, sometimes you can forget what got you that joy and those results and how you played.

“That’s probably what happened. We look to Saturday now and hopefully we have got it out of our system.”

Running into a classy Bolton side on their return certainly didn’t help.

“They are flying high and their record speaks for itself,” said the 35-year-old.

“Even if we went against them with six wins from six it would still have been a tough game. We know the facilities they have got, the players they can bring in and the money they are on but this is what we aspire to be."