GILLINGHAM manager Andy Hessenthaler wants his side to show their "bouncebackability" against South East rivals Brighton on Saturday.

Nyron Nosworthy returns to the Gillingham side as they look to prove their resilience. The defender has only made three appearances this season and comes into the side to strengthen a defence that has conceded 19 goals so far, including nine in the last three games.

Hessenthaler labelled his team a “Jekyll and Hyde” side and he was looking to freshen his team up with new faces. But as yet, he has been unsuccessful in his dealings, so is hoping the current crop can do the business.

He said: “We’ve had a problem at right-back for a few weeks. We’ve been playing centre-halves at right-back and I don’t think that’s helped us.

“With his second-half performance against Reading, Nyron gave us a big lift coming back in and hopefully that will continue. He’s a big bonus and I hope his presence back in the team will give everybody a lift.

"It's a big game on Saturday, they're all big games at the moment when we're not performing as well as we should. Confidence is a bit low for some reason and the only way to raise the confidence and start to get a few results.

"But Saturday isn't the be all and end all. If we don't get a result it's not the end of the season by a long way. But we all know how big this game is and we do need to get ourselves up and running again.

"Brighton, no disrespect to them, are below us in the table and they've come up and we should be beating teams like Brighton. I'm looking for a massive improvement in our performances.

“We owe the fans one. We'll try and show our 'bouncebackability' and forget about how important this game is. When you think about the importance of the game, that's when you fall into the trap and you don't play with enough freedom."

Hessenthaler added that after conceding a barrage of early goals against Sunderland and Reading, Gills will need to make sure they defend well against the Seagulls.

"At home on Saturday we've got to be ultra-tight. We've got to make sure we defend properly and if after half an hour it's 0-0 then fine. We're too eager to please and we've just got to be patient.

"We've got to get back to the old Gills where nobody wanted to come and play against us because we made it so difficult for teams to come here."

Darren Byfield missed training all week with a virus and is a major doubt for the game against Brighton. Barry Ashby is definitely out with a knee injury.