After successive SKYBet League Two defeats, Mark Bonner and his Gillingham squad head to face Bradford City at the University of Bradford Stadium, as they look to get back to winning ways.

With the Gills slipping to fifth after last weekend’s home defeat to Accrington Stanley, the Gills head North to face a Bradford side who are just a point and two places worse off than Bonner’s side leaving the Gills boss to tell KSN this week, “Saturday is a really good game to look forward to!”  

“They are going really well at the moment, and they had a crowd of around seventeen thousand at their last home game so these are games that you really have to relish as a player – they are an historical Club yes, but actually more importantly bug stadium really good atmosphere.

“The pitch is in much better condition than the last time we would have been there, so it’s certainly one to look forward to and a real good challenge off the back of a difficult couple of weeks against a team in very good form having built a really good squad who will be there or there about I am sure throughout the season.

“They are one of the more direct teams in the League but they can mix their game up, they are a really high crossing team and have a forward in Andy Cooke who has been brilliant in the box and has got off to a great start with his goal-scoring this season as well as having some good experience in their team; some good size about them, good power so I think it makes for a really good game and very different to the last few that we have had.” 

“It is certainly a game to relish as I do think that some of the best days in football come about in the bigger stadiums and bigger atmospheres usually so that is certainly something that we hope we can go and do, there are a couple of clubs we have already played with big qualities and big crowds and who we face through the year, but this is one of the biggest, I think.

“We had a brilliant result at Notts County another Club that has an excellent stadium and a big, big fanbase, this is certainly one to be looked forward to and relished; I certainly will be many of the players have had the experience and played there before, and hopefully we can go there and back up the Notts result which was a really good one on the road and we want to be able to do that again.” 

“I think in the next week when we play three games (after Saturday, the Gills welcome Newport County to MEMS Priestfield on Tuesday, before travelling to face old foes Swindon Town), I do believe that we will see three quite different games but this is one where we will have to be really good in and we want to go and change the run of results that we are on and try to give a performance that will give us a real good chance of doing that!” 

Bonner then spoke of his squad availability for the weekend and Bradford City, keeper Glenn Morris remains the top concern after hobbling off in Saturday’s defeat to Accrington. Bonner conceded that Morris has not yet trained this week on grass after feeling his hamstring when taking a goal-kick; Bonner conceded that Morris is working hard with the fitness team and the manager hopes to see his keeper on the grass soon but it may not be this weekend confirming that Jake Turner may be fit enough to start if needed. 

Elsewhere, the manager admitted that he has two or three players who have not played since the weekend and has only seen two more for the first time on Thursday. Aaron Rowe and Josh Andrews however remain some distance from a return to first team duty. 

On the plus side, Bonner confirmed that Conor Masterson will be in the squad and confirmed that both Tim Dieng and Euan Williams have made progress to returning to the squad after good weeks on the training pitch.