Gillingham manager Mark Bonner has been named Sky Bet League 2 August manager-of-the-month

Gillingham manager Mark Bonner has picked up a personal accolade in the first month of competitive action.

Bonner’s been named as the Sky Bet EFL League 2 manager of the month for August after a solid start to life in charge of the Gills.

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Gillingham ended the opening month of the season sitting top of the table, with three wins and a draw. They’ve since slipped back to fourth after losing at Doncaster last weekend.

Bonner’s side started the League 2 season in ruthless fashion, beating well-fancied Carlisle United 4-1 at Priestfield.

Defensive resolve was on show in back-to-back treks up north in the following weeks as they beat Morecambe 1-0 and came back from Fleetwood with a point after a goalless draw.

The month ended with a 1-0 win over Chesterfield - another team tipped to do well this season following their promotion from the National League.

Bonner said: “Ten points from the first four games is good. I think that the points return is an exceptional one, firstly, and it's a testament to a few things. One, the amount of work in the off-season and pre-season to prepare ourselves for that first month. And then secondly, look at how many players contributed in that month. Only I would know how much the staff have given over the 10 or 12 weeks to help get to that point as well.

“We talk about togetherness all the time. You only get ever any sort of individual awards or recognition, or team-of-the-week, goal-of-the-month, manager-of-the-month, whatever those records might be. You only get them because of everybody else around you.”

Bonner will be hoping his side can bounce back from last week’s loss at Doncaster when they host Tranmere Rovers at Priestfield this Saturday.

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