Former Southend United and England under-21 boss Peter Taylor has bounced back into club management with Second Division Gillingham.

The 46-year-old, who was surprisingly forced out of his position within the FA's international set up last month, was named as sacked Gills chief Tony Pulis' replacement yesterday after signing a two-year contract.

Now Taylor, who led England's young lions to the under-21 European Championship finals with a 100 per cent record, is looking forward to helping Gillingham achieve their goal of First Division status.

"I always wanted to make a return to club management once my job with the England boys was finished and I must say it feels great to be back," Taylor said.

"Working with the under-21 side was a job that I enjoyed, but you only get together every few months and I must admit that I've missed the day to day contact of working with the players on the training pitch.

"But I'm back in a club role now, with an ambitious team, which I hope to do very well for."

Gillingham, who have never played above the bottom two divisions of English football, suffered the heartbreak of a dramatic Wembley play-off final defeat at the hands of Manchester City last season.

The Kent outfit, leading 2-0 at one stage, lost on penalties after City had fought their way back into the game with two last gasp goals in normal time.

"When a team has just missed out on promotion it can be difficult for them to get firing again at the start of the next campaign," Taylor admitted.

"I spoke to my close friend John Rudge, the former Port Vale boss, recently, and he told me that it took his players nearly two months to get one of their promotion near misses out of their systems at the start of the following season.

"But I'll be bringing my own ideas on board at Gillingham this year and I'll freshen things up around the place as we all strive to win promotion to the First Division."

Taylor still has some bitter memories of his ill-fated spell as Southend boss, where he was given his first crack at league management, following Barry Fry's decision to jump ship for Blues' First Division rivals Birmingham City.

"It was a difficult time to take over at Roots Hall because the players were unsettled by Barry's departure, which wasn't helped when I was ordered to sell both of my best strikers,"said Taylor.

"One of Blues' directors actually told me not to take the job at the time - which was sound advice - but I love the club and wanted to give it a go.

"However, I can't see the same problems cropping up at Gillingham because I've got a very good team and an ambitious chairman to help me."

Taylor is also happy that he won't have to leave his Thorpe Bay home to take up his new post at the Priestfield Stadium.

"I'm a Southend boy through and through, which made moving out of the area something I never wanted to do," he added.

New boss - Peter Taylor is Gillingham's manager

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