Gillingham manager Gareth Ainsworth on a two-year plan at Priestfield and leaving League 1 Shrewsbury Town

Gillingham’s new manager Gareth Ainsworth admitted it was a tough decision to leave his former club - but was sold a vision he couldn’t turn down.

Ainsworth has nine games left this season ahead of a two-year plan that the club hope will lead to better performances and results – stopping short of declaring any targets publicly.

“Leaving Shrewsbury Town was a big wrench,” Ainsworth admitted, as he faced the local media for the first time on Thursday afternoon.

“They obviously wanted to keep me. The reasons, I don't want to go into too much detail, but what I will say is the chairman and Micky Moore, the director of football, got a lot of stick for me going and I think that that stick probably could be aimed elsewhere because there's more reasons than that.

“They fought hard to keep me, did everything they could, but the fact that here at Gillingham. We'd met Brad and Shannon (Galinson) in the summer at the start of last season. When I got permission to speak to Gillingham again, the plans were outlined. (They were) very exciting and guaranteed plans. ‘This is what's happening, this is what you've got’. This is a two-year journey that we want you to be part of.”

League 1 Shrewsbury had offered Ainsworth and his assistant new contracts but the Gills triggered a termination clause to facilitate a move to ME7.

The Gills hope the new management team end their recent trend which has seen Neil Harris, Stephen Clemence and Mark Bonner all sacked and John Coleman lasting just 14 games before being replaced..

Ainsworth said: “I’m very flattered that they've identified me as that manager to do that two-year journey.

“The added bonus is I could move back home because I did miss my family a lot while I was up in the Shropshire area.