GILLINGHAM’S hopes of retaining their Championship status took another major blow with a heavy defeat at Crewe on Saturday.

And after the team received a prolonged post-match dressing-down, Gills player-manager Andy Hessenthaler admitted he is eager to delve into the transfer market to help put things right.

He said: "We do need some fresh faces, people know that and I think the chairman knows that. We’re going to have to reshuffle and bring two or three players to the football club.

"There isn’t money there to be honest, real money to bring in real quality. But there will be some funds available to maybe do something.

"We’re hoping that something will happen before the Forest game of some sort, maybe one or two players, but that’s something we’ve got to try and work hard on Monday and get right."

Hessenthaler has now seen his side slip further adrift in the relegation zone but he remains upbeat about their survival chances.

He said: "We’ve got to stay in the division and that’s the crucial thing. We’ve got 26 games to make sure we can do that and I’m confident we will do it.

"The players are down but we’ve got to stay positive because if you’re going to mope around that’s the worst thing we could do – we’ve got to stick together.

"We’ve got to pick up points and it’s as simple as that otherwise we’re going to have a major problem.

"I’ll keep working hard and I won’t walk away from anything and keep my shoulders nice and strong and keep working to turn it around."

Gills were guilty of missing several chances and Hessenthaler said: "Going forward we looked bright but so did they and they took their chances.

"We’ve had two great chances before they scored, Darius really should have scored and then Byfield hit the bar and if they’d gone in then the game could have been different. But that’s the way it is."

Hessenthaler added: "The game was too open, we have got to get tighter in midfield. Crewe are a good footballing side and moved the ball well.

“They’ve got some good young players and if you give them time on the ball they will hurt you. I felt that was the case.”