Gillingham assistant manager Richard Dobson accepts wholehearted performances will lead to bookings but urges players to avoid being stupid

Gillingham’s players have been reminded about picking up any unnecessary bookings.

The Gills lost both Sam Gale and Jonny Williams last weekend through suspension, and recently had Josh Andrews missing for a game after accumulating five bookings.

Gale’s suspension also came after collecting five yellow cards, and others are close to picking up an automatic ban, with Bradley Dack and Elliott Nevitt one more yellow card away from punishment.

Gillingham are among the worst offenders in the division, and while assistant boss Richard Dobson accepts a more committed team is prone to cautions, he doesn’t want his side to be punished for ‘stupid’ incidents.

He said: “The way we play, we're competitive, and we wouldn't take that out of the players.

“I'm disappointed if a booking is for something petulant. We don't want to lose players through petulance, but absolutely if they're in the fight and they're putting tackles in and they're getting booked for the odd miss-timed tackle, then I don't have any issues with that.

“Ideally, you'd like to be more controlled, but they're wholehearted and they played so much with their heart at the weekend that they forgot to think a little bit at times, and that was our undoing. It's something that we've hopefully addressed this week.

“But you can't fault their effort and their willingness to fight for the club, they're all in, and they love the place at the moment.”

With injuries continuing to affect team selection, Dobson doesn’t want to be further hampered by suspensions.

He added: “We don't want to lose players. It's tough enough when you have a series of injuries and you lose players maybe three or four at a time, but when you add a couple of suspensions in there as well all of a sudden to