After their weekend off, Gillingham welcome Harrogate Town to Kent this weekend with boss Mark Bonner keen for his players to carry on from where they left off in the last league game.
In that last game at MEMS Priestfield – it was a 1-0 win over leaders Port Vale.
Speaking to KSN at this week’s briefing, the Gills boss told us, “Because we had the quick turn around with the Blackpool Cup game and put that away quite quickly, I think everyone quite enjoyed the weekend off if I’m being honest!”
“If you can build some momentum and have a game quickly after then fine, but the other side of the coin is that we have had some good performances recently – Blackpool we were very strong albeit not the way we wanted the result to go; Swindon we took a point from and then drew with Stevenage having beaten Port Vale.”
“So that period of time we feel like results have turned a little bit for us; we feel like performances have turned a little bit for us, and because we have had a couple of weeks where we haven’t had so much, it probably feels like we have been better for longer than maybe we have been.”
“That’s not a bad thing at all – it gives everyone an energy about them and hopefully gives others the chance to be fresh going into this weekend.”
“We were really happy with the result the last time we played here in the League, really pleased with lots of elements of the game that followed it at Stevenage and really pleased in the last week or so to get some rest in, and a little bit of work into some, and for some of those returning, we have been able to train this week, whereas if we had had games, it might have been difficult for them!”
“Whether that benefits us right away, I am not sure, but I think over the busy Christmas period ahead, it should do!”
Looking ahead to the weekend, Bonner said, “They (Harrogate) are in a similar sort of run to us. They played very well against Blackpool in a Cup game, they have had a couple of good results in the Trophy where they have played well and got a brilliant result last week against Chesterfield (an injury time goal gave the Yorkshire side a 2-1 win) and we know how good Chesterfield are.”
“Whilst Harrogate will probably be dissatisfied at the position they find themselves in and the run of form that they have had, their games have been very close, quite low scoring games and the return of some of their more athletic players in recent games has given them a slightly different dimension.”
“We can expect a hard running team that create chances, and they play with an intensity and an edge which makes them a difficult opponent.”
“At the same time as that, we have to make sure that we try to dominate the game and take it by the scruff of the neck. We want to come out the winning team as we want to get a stack of wins ideally, but certainly an unbeaten run together over this next period as we are a third of the season in the League, and after Saturday we play five games in twenty-eight days and then five in seventeen so it gets crazy!”
“We have to keep ticking away in this next period and stack some results together so that by the time we get to the second game in January, we will be more than halfway through the season and it will really start to shape out what the season is going to look like.”
“In these games, the players have to recognise the importance of – we have to play with the personality of a good side and the quality of a tough side and I think the game will be really challenging.”
“The weather looks like it’s going to be chucking it down with buckets of rain and 45 mph winds which will bring its own challenges and we will have to make sure that we stand up to them!”
Bonner’s squad news was encouraging in that Elliott Nevitt, George Lapslie, Aaron Rowe and Robbie McKenzie have all trained on grass this week.
Bonner admitted that he may have to “put the reins on some of them” before they return to the matchday squad, but confirmed that some will definitely be back in contention.
The news on Bradley Dack remains encouraging too as Bonner told us that Dack had spent last week at Loughborough University as he bids to get back to match fitness. That may yet be some way off yet though for the Gills boss who celebrates his 39th birthday on Saturday…