Midfielder Kyle Dempsey speaks about his move from Gillingham to Bolton Wanderers for the first time

Gillingham made a late bid to keep Kyle Dempsey when manager Neil Harris arrived on transfer deadline day - but his mind was made up.

Dempsey ended a successful spell with the Gills at the end of last month, after agreeing a move to Bolton Wanderers, finally sealing a deal with the window close to closing.

He was speaking to the press in Bolton ahead of the weekend and revealed how Harris was keen for him to stay.

He said: “I went in (to Gills) on the morning of deadline day to have a chat with him (Harris) and it is hard to have those sort of conversations with a manager who has just come into the building.

“To be fair, he was top quality. He told me he wanted to keep me at the club and I was honest, I said my mind was already made up.”

As Dempsey packed up his belonging and headed up north, the Gills wasted no time in finding an able replacement, with the eye-catching signing of Millwall’s Ben Thompson - a player more than capable of filling the departing captain’s place.

Bolton had made no secret of their interest in Dempsey, with their manager Ian Evatt announcing his desire for the midfielder to play for them while he was still on Gills’ books.

Dempsey said: “It was one of them where it wasn’t definite. I knew the interest was there. I knew they were keen to get me in the building but my job as a footballer is to play games.

“The situation that we were in at Gillingham, I was never going to let my team-mates down, I was never going to let the club down and also I was coming back from injury and the games were important for me to build up my match fitness up.

“I think me as a player, with my character, I was the captain of the club as well, I had a duty and I tried my hardest until the very end to give my best that I