Gillingham 4 Burton 1

When the team is winning, the manager’s job suddenly looks very easy. The hardest part of Martin Allen’s afternoon was the post-match interview, when he seemed slightly lost for words, trying to work out whether this was his team’s best performance of what has been, so far, a very strong season. Confidence is high, both on the field and in the stands, and many of the ghosts of the past few seasons are seemingly being laid to rest.

Allen’s appointment in the summer was met with a mostly lukewarm response, but his early results have little short of spectacular. His signing s have mostly worked out well, Nelson, Barrett, Allen and Weston being amongst the standout players in the side. But he has also overseen vastly improved performance from many of last year’s underachievers, Mark Fish and Danny Kedwell in particular. The team look fitter than before, and have a purpose about their playing that was often lacking.

The obvious conclusion to draw from this is that it is the manager who has made the crucial difference. But the obvious conclusion isn’t necessarily the right one. At the very least, there are other factors to take into account. Gillingham’s strength in depth must be the envy of the division, and so far this season Allen has added a two loan signings from the Championship to his already  would be wrong to say Gillingham have  been lucky here, the money earned from players brought through the clubs youth system and subsequently moved on with deals that show benefit in the long term is down to hard work and good business, not luck. But Allen is the lucky man who is now reaping the benefit of those deals.

Allen’s managerial record is very much hit and miss. Of course, if it wasn’t for his failures, there’s no way he’d be at Gillingham now. But by his own account he has changed his managerial style over the years. As he told The Independent earlier in the season; “Management methods have had to change. I have undertaken courses to look at leadership, being more open-minded.” Maybe this is an example of club and manager finding each other at the right time.

Even with his changed ways, some of Allen's methods and quotes are still somewhat left of centre. When the team is winning, all of these idiosyncrasies can seem endearing, the charm of a maverick. It's not so endearing when the results aren't going well, as anyone who has been watching Brendan Rodgers early season David Brent impression on Channel 5 will know. 

Still, at the moment the players seem to be responding to Allen. Whether they like him or not, whether they respect him or find him slightly odd, the results seems to justify the methods. When Steve Evans left Crawley late last season, with the team in the promotion places with two games to go, footage emerged on Youtube of the players celebrating his departure. Evans is, of course, a particularly polarising figure, capable of making even Neil Warnock seem charming and likeable by comparison. It's easy to sympathise with his former charges feelings. There's nothing to suggest that Allen's relationship with his players is anything like as difficult. But even if it was, as long as the results and performances carry on as they've begun, few in the stands will worry too much.