Following Saturday's away defeat to Exeter City Gills Manager Mark Stimson has decided to appoint Barry Fuller as Team Captain. Speaking last night Stimson revealed the thinking behind his decision. "It probably raised more than a few eyebrows to be honest. For me, you look at captains and they are either the best players in the team or one of the best motivators in the team. Barry Fuller would agree that he is not the best player but he is a great motivator. He's only little but he is desperate to win every game even if it's a five a side in a training session. He is not frightened to give constructive criticism to people and that is why I decided to give Barry the armband. He is going to keep it from now on as I think he has got it in his locker to do the job."

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"I spoke to Andrew Crofts about it. Rightly so, Andrew is not too happy about it. Before Andrew got the captaincy at the club, people have told me that he played his best football. Maybe giving him the captaincy put a little burden on him. I wasn't here to see that but I am hoping that it might be the case. I don't think Andrew is firing on all cylinders at the moment for whatever reasons so maybe taking a bit of pressure of him will let him play his natural game. Andrew is not the most vocal of people in the changing room; he's not somebody that goes around and gets people at it as he is concentrating on his own game."

Stimson revealed that the appointment was a shock for Fuller too, "Barry was surprised but his words to me were that he was honoured to be captain. That was great. I said to him don't let it change your game. It can affect you and that's what might've happened to Andrew. Just go out there and play like you have been playing. I think that over the season so far, he has probably been our best player. That's hard when you are a fullback as they don't get any glamour. It's a job. I was a fullback and you just turn up and play. Every game he has played, he has had a good battle with the wingers despite having a couple of hard ones to play against. He gives it everything he has got and is even getting into the final third now and causing problems there."