Gillingham boss Gareth Ainsworth reveals why Robbie McKenzie replaced Bradley Dack as penalty taker in draw with Crawley Town

Robbie McKenzie surprisingly stepped up to take and score Gillingham’s penalty on Saturday and their manager explained why.

With this season’s designated taker, Bradley Dack, and previous preferred option Max Clark both on the pitch, it was a surprise to see McKenzie take on the spot-kick responsibility.

The Gills had missed their previous two spot-kicks, taken by Clark and Dack, which led manager Gareth Ainsworth to say they would work on their penalties.

They did just that, and after seeing McKenzie stick a few away in training ahead of the weekend, Ainsworth changed their chief penalty taker to defensive midfielder McKenzie.

“I made the decision before the game,” said the Gills boss, who also praised Dack for his reaction to that decision.

“The leadership in Bradley is flourishing at the moment, really coming out, and people probably think that he's getting past it. We're far from it when he performs like he did (on Saturday).

“I had a little whisper with Brad before the game and said, ‘look, I'm going to put Robbie on penalties, good with you?’

“With Max missing one last week, Bradley understood, and he said, ‘to be fair, I prefer to score open play goals rather than penalties!

“Robbie took a few good ones (on Friday in training) so I nominated Robbie and I'm glad I did.

“That's number seven penalties and we're deserving them.”

Nobody in League 2 has been awarded more penalties than Gillingham.

Armani Little scored two from the spot in a 4-1 win over Chesterfield and Clark netted one late in the game to earn a point at Bromley.

Dack was on the pitch to score a penalty at Newport and McKenzie’s weekend effort means they’ve now converted five from seven.

McKenzie did score from the spot earlier in the season, during