Gillingham’s transfer deadline-day signings made a positive impression on the manager before they’d even kicked a ball for the team.

The Gills signed 23-year-old central defender Andy Smith from Hull City and Liverpool’s 21-year-old midfielder Dominic Corness, both on loan for the rest of the season.

Deals for the pair were finalised late in the day, but both players were keen to get started straight away and both with similar aims, to play as much football as possible during the next three months.

Smith’s only played one senior game this season, back in August, but has previously played in the lower leagues at Salford, Grimsby and Cheltenham.

Coleman said: “He's one that we identified very, very early, within the first two days of myself coming (in as manager).

“We did a lot of homework on him. We sent people to watch him as well. We've watched a lot of footage of him. He was one that we think we could get going at this club.

“It was a long drawn-out process getting him. Hull were reluctant to let him go until they got somebody else in (They signed ex-Gills man John Egan from Burnley).

“I'm made up that he's come now. He's so keen. Once he knew he was coming he didn't wait until the next day. He jumped in his car and got here at about 10pm for the medical, which tells you that he was keen to come. You want players who want to kick-start their career.

“Even though he's at a Championship club he wasn't happy sitting on the bench. He wants to play. I've got nothing but respect for people who are like that.”

Corness comes with quite a reputation as a potential star of the future, but he needs to show he can do it in the men’s game, having got a taste for it last season at Swiss top-flight side Yverdon Sport.

Coleman said: “It was a brave move for him. You've got to take your hat off to him. He wants to play football.

“He was desperate to leave Liverpool to have the opportunity to play men's football and that shows you the character in him.

“The deal that we managed to do with Liverpool was very advantageous for us. I thought, we've got a lad here who's hungry, desperate to play football. Desperate to play men's football.

“It isn't just a myth, he is known as “The WandT at Liverpool Football Club. For a club of that size and someone who's got a left foot like Mo Salah and he's got a left foot that's called a wand. You'd like to think we're going to get something out of him!

“He's keen. It cost him his own money to go to Switzerland, a lot of it he did off his own bat. That shows you that he's more focused on his football than he is the monetary side of it, which, believe me, I've been involved with lots and lots of players and when you put the football before the financial rewards you're getting a player who gives everything.

“He's settled in really well. He got here about two o'clock in the morning but he was determined to get down ready for training the next day.

“These players are desperate to kick start their career and the rest of their season now.”

Both players are expected to be available for the game at Barrow on Saturday.

Along with new signings, the Gills also recently announced a longer-term deal for defender Sam Gale and Coleman sees the 20-year-old old as a potential future captain for the club.

Coleman said: “As soon as we came in, it was mooted the contract was going to be on the table. I tried to push that through as quickly as I could.

“I think he's got a future. I think he's a future captain, hopefully at his club. To have a local lad captain your club would be brilliant.

“He speaks well. He speaks well on the pitch as well. He's not afraid to lead. At this moment in time we need leaders on the pitch.”