Gillingham winger Jayden Clarke sees no reason for a rush to appoint a new permanent manager.

The team’s form, with or without a manager, has dipped. The Gills have won just one of their last five in the league, conceding an average two goals a game in the process. A stark contrast to a run of 1-0 wins from their first four games of the season.

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A 4-1 loss at Walsall on Saturday saw the Gills drop to seventh in the League 2 table.

But Clarke’s enjoyed playing under interim boss Keith Millen.

Following Saturday’s heavy defeat, he said: “I can’t speak for others, I haven’t seeked their opinion, but there is no rush for me, Keith has been great with us, we all know him, no rush.

“Keith has been great…He has been really positive with us and all of the players are together. I wouldn’t say it has changed massively (since Neil Harris was sacked). We are all doing our jobs and waiting to see what happens.

“Whoever the manager is, it doesn’t change out target, which at the start of the season was hopefully to get into the top seven. It doesn’t change now that Neil isn’t here.

“It has been a bit of a strange period recently, with Neil going, but us as players, we focus every day on our own job. People higher up are dealing with the managerial situation but us as players we focus on ourselves. We make sure we are ready to train and play and I am sure it will get sorted soon.

“We have to try and push and get into that top seven, we will see how the season goes.

“Whoever comes in, all of the players will be trying to impress and get into the team. Everyone is here for the same reason, to try and play, even if you are not in the team you have to be positive. When you come on try and make a positive impact, which I have had to do quite a bit this season, which I think I have done a fair few times.

“We will try our best, whoever the new manager is and even now with Keith we are all pushing each other, we will have to wait and see what happens.”

Clarke came off the bench on Saturday at 2-0 down. The Gills conceded a third soon after but his pace down the left helped get them a goal back immediately.

The Gills threatened a fightback but ended up losing 4-1.

He said: “I was happy with myself, but at the end of the day as a team we didn’t win and it wasn’t good enough.

“We were all disappointed afterwards. As a group we have set a high standard in the past and we didn’t reach that. We will be back in on Monday to try and correct it for a big game next week (at home to Notts County).

“We know we haven’t been the best away from home and it was a good opportunity to try and correct that but unfortunately it wasn’t to be.”