Gillingham full back Cheye Alexander has been speaking this week ahead of the Club’s Emirates FA Cup trip to Dagenham & Redbridge – the area that the defender knows very well as he grew up nearby.

“I grew up not too far away,” Alexander told KSN this week. “It’s probably my local club as I was growing up. It’s never been on the table to play for Dagenham if I’m honest, but I’ve played there a few times.”

“My family will be there at the weekend, and they will be supporting us as I’m from a family of West Ham supporters,” the Gills defender revealed.

“I don’t think that it makes too much difference as the gap between the National League and the Football League isn’t very big anymore as there are some huge clubs in the division – a lot of old League clubs, so I don’t think it makes too much difference at all.”

“It’ll be a nice pitch in what is now a nice stadium so we’re all looking forward to it. It’ll be a massive, massive boost to everyone at the Club if we’re in the Third-Round draw on Monday and the confidence that we can take from a win into the League is something that we need to bring.”

“The results will come, and the luck will fall for us – we haven’t had that little bit of luck that we maybe need, but that will definitely drop if we keep doing what we know we can do and doing the right things, we will be alright.”

“It’s been difficult watching from the sidelines as I’ve not really been on the bench that much previously in my career, but it urged me to work harder in training and when I get my shirt, I intend to keep it!”

“There’s highs and lows in football – you never get too high, and you can never get too low and sometimes you need to get told by the manager that you’re not doing something right and it needs to be changed then it is.”

“It hasn’t fallen for us in the last couple of weeks, but I don’t think the confidence has changed at all – I think that we now we now need to push on and get results.”

Picture supplied by Gillingham Football Club.