By mid-November, Gillingham found themselves in the relegation zone at 22nd in the league table[3] and Cooper made the decision to resign.

This was initially intended to be a temporary solution until a permanent successor was found however due to an impressive turnaround of form Jepson would go on to keep the role for almost 2 years.

[5] Jepson was confident in his ability to turn the results around and keep Gillingham from a second consecutive relegation campaign with the squad that he inherited from Cooper.

[6] An immediate improvement in form was noticeable with Gillingham taking 13 points from a possible 21 in the league for the remainder of the calendar year compared to just 17 of a possible 51 that Cooper had acquired since the beginning of the campaign.

However, despite Jepson's initial confidence in the squad, a series of injuries and suspensions in Gillingham's forward lineup[8] throughout the early stages of 2006 led to difficulties in the attacking third with youngsters Gavin Grant and Akwasi Fobi-Edusei filling in for injured Paul Shields and Matt Jarvis.