Steve Bruce still follows his old team Gillingham and is rooting for his former assistant Stephen Clemence to succeed

Stephen Clemence’s old mentor is rooting for him to do well at his former club Gillingham.

For over a decade, Clemence worked as an assistant to Steve Bruce before going it alone after landing the head coach role at Gillingham.

The Gills targeted a top-seven spot this season and Clemence has a big challenge ahead of him in their remaining games to make that happen.

Speaking today (Tuesday) on talkSPORT, Bruce said: “I wish him the best of luck he worked for me for the best part of 10-12 years.

“He deserves his chance, he’s got a real good opportunity at Gillingham. I wish him well and I speak to him all the time.

“You want him to do well because he’s such a great lad.”

Bruce’s professional playing career started at Gillingham, moving south after playing kids football with Wallsend Boys’ Club in his native northeast and being turned down by the likes of Newcastle and Sunderland.

It was Gerry Summers who invited him down, the former Gills manager who recently passed away at the age of 90 and was remembered on Saturday with a minute’s applause at Priestfield.

An apprenticeship at Gillingham for Bruce and England youth honours was followed by a promotion to the senior side at Priestfield and he went onto make over 200 appearances for the club.

Bruce went on to play and manage at the top of the game but his time at the Gills hasn’t been forgotten.

Bruce said: “I will always be indebted to Gillingham, it gave us the opportunity to play and certainly when everybody was turning me down when I was a kid, Gillingham took me on and I stayed there for seven years.

“One of the first results I look for is always how is Gillingham doing, I keep an eye on them.”