Gillingham Manager Ronnie Jepson is full of praise for the club's support.
The Gills put in a disappointing performance against Port Vale on Tuesday but Jepson admitted the support of the 165 away fans at Vale Park was fantastic: "The supporters were fantastic. To go up to Vale Park on a Tuesday evening and drive up there in those conditions, they never stopped singing and they are a different gear. I don't think the players gave them the performance that they deserved. The fans put in plenty of effort to get up there to watch the team and I expect the players to have a go a bitter better than they did the other night. We do appreciate the support and the amount of miles they travel, especially where we are geographically. The amount of miles the fans cover over the season is quite incredible. They keep on coming to support us and that is fantastic."
After the final whistle, Jepson looked for the supporters coach so he could make an apology but the coach had already departed for Kent: "It was spur of the moment. I was standing in the dugout at the end, and I looked at the supporters, it was blowing a gale and raining, and I thought the journey they'd had, to get up there that night must have been horrendous. I thought rather than doing it through the press, that can be an easy way out at times, I wanted to go over and just say what I thought."
The team coach caught up with the supporters coach at Watford Gap services and Jepson and his assistant, Mick Docherty, boarded the fans vehicle to make an apology: "I wasn't bothered whether or not I got stick off them, which I didn't as it turned out. I just wanted them to know that we do care, and I wanted to apologise for the performance. I also told them that hopefully we can add to the squad and get the sort of team they deserve.
"It wasn't for any brownie points, I just did it because it was coming from my heart, it was the way I felt, and I felt as though I had to say something because it was an unbelievable journey they made on a Tuesday evening and they deserved a better explanation than me doing it through the press, so it was an opportunity where I could go and speak to them, and I did just that."
