Recent loan signing Rene Howe made his first start in Gills colours in Saturday's 0-0 draw with Colchester United at krbs Priestfield. Speaking after the final whistle, the debutant expressed his satisfaction with the team's display.
"It went well, we've lost a few on the bounce so we needed to be solid. Although we didn't get the goals, we did play well as a team. We went into the game with confidence and that's what the gaffer instilled into the lads. Just play with confidence, work hard and I thought we were worth a point today.
"Colchester don't really play a lot of football. They have a big side and they are in and around the play-offs so I think that will be one of our hardest games this year. I think we worked hard today and hopefully in the next game we can get the ball down a bit more and play a bit of football."
"They defended well but in the second half we had a lot more chances and probably should have taken one. Perhaps my pass to Rooney could have been a bit better where I ran down his left hand side and cut across into the box, but they defended well."
Howe made a goalscoring start to the season with a loan spell at Lincoln City and believes he can improve on his impressive debut with regular starts in the coming weeks. "I was on loan at Lincoln but I came back in November because I picked up a hamstring injury.
"I've not played for two months but I've been training every day during that time. It's just the match fitness and I think I'll get that over the next couple of games. Hopefully I can start providing some goals and some better play."
"I had a few chances where I could have score and had I been a bit sharper I could have taken them. Sometimes you've got to put your foot through it and maybe sometimes today I took one touch too many and tried to place it."
Rene only arrived at the club 48 hours before the clash with Colchester but the young forward is already confident that he can build a strong partnership with Simeon Jackson, adding "He's a good lad and he works hard in training so that always a bonus for a striker, to work hard and be finishing at the end of training. He's a good player without doubt and he'll play a lot higher.
"I can header and I can chest it and keep it down of course, but I like to get it into feet and play some balls through for Simeon to run onto like I did today. Unfortunately he didn't score any today but that's how I play."
The loan move to Gillingham is Howe's fourth in three seasons after stints at Rochdale, Morecambe and Lincoln and the nomadic forward admits he's desperate to find a permanent home. Come the summer I'll be going back to Peterborough but if someone comes in for me and I'm interested then I'll have to look at that.
"It's not quite worked out at Peterborough and I think I need to move on. They need to let me move on as well, I can't be coming out on loan all the time. If someone can make it a permanent move then I'll take it into serious consideration."
