Gillingham manager Mark Bonner doesn’t want to take extra time off after a positive start to the League 2 season – Notts County trip comes next

Time off can wait for Gillingham’s players - that’s the message from boss Mark Bonner.

The Gills have enjoyed a positive start to their League 2 campaign but Bonner isn’t ready for the players to start taking it easy.

It’s been a full-on start and Bonner expects it to stay that way, for now.

He said: “The lads are desperate for some more days off at the moment, but I’m killing them a bit because we’re just cracking on.

“At the minute I’m a bit of a Scrooge. We’re trying to develop a real resilience, a real togetherness, an incredible work ethic and so we have to work our way towards that. That’s the first side of that.

“The second side of that is we’re trying to get better as well and we can’t do that sat at home.

“They’re going to have to stick with it for a little bit and they’ll get their time back with me over the season, no doubt.”

Bonner’s methods are working so far.

Four wins from their opening six league matches leaves them heading into the weekend second in the table. They travel to leaders Notts County this Saturday.

“Excellent,” grinned the manager, having just beaten Tranmere 3-0 at home and asked about their next match.

“A blockbuster on week six of the season!”

There was another fine performance from Joe Gbode at the weekend. The #Gills manager has set some challenges for the teenager forward if he wants to become a regular in the team ⬇️https://t.co/gJn8duijeG

League 2 table – top 10

Positions in the league table aren’t at the forefront of Bonner’s mind - constant improvement in his team’s performances are.

He said: “I’m just going to keep encouraging them to keep being the best version of themselves.

“I’m really enjoying working with them because they want to get better and, most importantly, when the