Gillingham go into the festive football programme with Mark Bonner’s side just two points outside the SKYBet League Two Play Off places as they prepare to welcome Cheltenham Town to the MEMS Priestfield for Friday Night Football.

“We are looking to start this busy period well where it does get very, very busy and continue on from a good performance and result for us at MK Dons last week!” 

“Playing Friday night, I don’t think is a problem for us as in our next month, I think we are going to play on a Friday, a Thursday, a Sunday, a Saturday in the next few weeks, as at this time of years, days go out of the window really, as you look how many days after a game it is and how many days before a game it is.”

“I think that everyone who is living the life and gets a little bit of time off over Christmas says the same really as your watch goes out of the way and your diary gets closed.” 

“It certainly is a very different schedule,” Bonner said, adding, “We initiated this move to get this game moved to a Friday night, forward from a Saturday, and ourselves and Colchester are the only two clubs in the division who have done that in the League.”

“The idea really is to give us a bit more of a run into the next game. After Boxing Day all our games have been changed because of TV, so all our games have been spread out a bit, so it has changed the dynamic a little bit over Christmas!”  

“I said to the lads on Monday that I think we have very few “working windows” in the next few weeks as it will be all about preparation and recovery; it will definitely be a squad game and the positive sign as we talk on Thursday is that we have a squad to rotate and choose for the first time in a long while, and hopefully it will pay off for us!”  

“Cheltenham are playing well at the moment,” Bonner told KSN at this week’s briefing as he turned his attention to Friday night’s game.

“They are in the middle of a good run of points scoring in the League and have had some good Cup results as well, so I think we are facing them when they are playing well.”

“I watched their Cup game against Cambridge a couple of weeks ago and they followed that with a good win at Morecambe last week – they are in a fairly good run of results and form and are climbing the table after a start to a season which was probably likely from having a start to a season with as much change as they did after their relegation last season, in terms of managers, players, and where the whole structure their changed during the summer.”

“It took a bit of time for them to get going, but they are in a good rhythm at the moment. The front four are really creative for them and they have a lot of threats at the top end of the pitch, so we will have to be ready for a really energetic, aggressive and hard running team that can cause you big problems if you defend in your own half, so that’s some of the work that we have been doing this week to prepare for that.” 

“The incentive is there for all of us to win and be in the top six ahead of Saturday’s games, but then that can change within 24 hours, so I guess it’s less for the focus as I guess, it’s more about us continuing the good work that we carried on last weekend.”

“There’s a little edge and a little bounce about us on the back of the last couple of results, and I think the key is that we start to consolidate that level.”

“We will need to be good to win the game – we know how hard some of the games have been here this season, and we will certainly need to be at the top of our game to continue on the results that we had and the last two wins, albeit similar scorelines, they have been very different games and I am certain that Friday night will look quite different to last weekend as well.” 

“But what I do think and I do hope is that I always think that under the lights here at Priestfield, you do get really good a really good atmosphere, and I hope and expect it to be the case on Friday night to see us continue building on the level that we have been in the last few weeks!” 

Squad news for Friday night and the manager confirmed that Joe Gbode will still be absent as his return from concussion protocol sees him having his first “contact” session on Saturday, so should be available for Boxing Day at Colchester.

Armani Little has been training with the physio this week in the hope that he rejoins full training in the build up to Boxing Day along with Tim Dieng and the manager told us that everyone who played at Milton Keynes last weekend is in Friday’s squad!