Chairman Paul Scally has rubbished talk of budgets as an excuse for Gillingham’s failure to compete at the right end of League 1.

Justin Edinburgh

was sacked as manager of the Gills on Tuesday morningpointed to the club’s budget as reasoning for their struggles and mentioned it again after Monday’s defeat to Oxford, saying that the club are currently over-achieving.

with the club languishing in 17th place in the division, 10 points adrift of the play-offs.

Departed boss Edinburgh often

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Mr Scally clearly didn’t agree and responded: “Some of the sides towards the top of League 1 are on much lower budgets than us.

“Our budget is quite substantial anyway.

“Management will always come up with cliches that are out of the book of excuses. It is either the budget, or the board aren’t ambitious, or all kinds of things.

Video: Paul Scally on Justin Edinburgh 'overachieving'

“Our budget is the highest it has ever been.

“There are teams on less budgets than us that have outplayed us this season. Oldham were bottom of the table and they were superb, Rochdale was a flattering result, AFC Wimbledon are on a low budget and Southend are up there.

It is a non-argument, frankly.”

Gills appointed Ady Pennock as their new manager on Wednesday.

Mr Scally brought Edinburgh to the club two years ago and was disappointed his appointment didn’t work out.

He said: “I rated Justin highly as a manager. It hasn’t worked out as I had hoped and how he would have hoped and I think, from the display on Monday, clearly there are some serious problems that need addressing.

“We have a talented squad, a lot of individuals who are rated highly and I think we are under-performing as a team, therefore the responsibility has to rest with the management
team.”

In his last interview as the Gills boss, Edinburgh insisted he had over-achieved.

He said: “For the last two seasons we have had top-half finishes, ninth last season, and with our budgets we were probably one of the lowest five budgets in this league.

“My ambition is to try and win every game but should we? No, not a chance. Are we over-achieving again this season? Yes.

“Are we in a position where we should be? We’re probably above it. Are there teams below us who would want to be in our position? Of course. Am I happy with where we are? Totally not.

“We will always want to over-achieve. We massively over-achieved in the last two seasons that I have been here and we will try and do that again. Can we do it on a regular basis? Well, we have to try and do that, that’s for sure.”

Mr Scally’s decision to fire Edinburgh and his backroom team ended their hopes of that chance.