Gillingham begin their Christmas campaign with a Friday night trip to the Cotswolds to face Forest Green Rovers, with Head Coach Stephen Clemence knowing that the Gills are in for a tough night if they are to launch themselves into the festive period.
Gillingham go into the fixtures just outside the Play Off places looking to start a run going into the New Year, his first as the Club’s Head Coach.
“I’m kind of used to the Christmas football as I’ve had them for most of my life,” Clemence conceded. “Christmas has always been the same for me – lots of games and the busiest time of the year, so nothing will change for me, but you still have to focus on the next games then worry about the ones after that when they come.”
“It’s terrific when you look into the stands this time of year and you see mums, dads, kids, nans, grandads all together at the football and the aim for us with our supporters is that they might all come to the game together, but we want to send them all home happy is my main objective.”
“We have got another good following going to Forest Green on Friday night – four or five hundred which is fantastic, so again I thank them for their support – and hopefully we will give them something to cheer about.”
“I am going to give my own family some time over Christmas as that is important too as with a dad who played the game, it was something that I got used to – it was my life.”
“When you are a child, you do not know any different – it is your dad’s job – and I just felt that it was normal. Christmas dinner for me sometimes when I was playing was penne pasta with chicken in it, whilst everyone around me was eating a turkey dinner – that is the way Christmases have been for me since I was a child.”
“When you have children yourself, you understand what Christmas means to families and you have got to have time with them.”
“A lot of the players here have young children as well, so it’s a nice time for them; yes the football is important, but your family is too, so you have to make sure that they get the time to enjoy each other,” Clemence said as he told us that there is no plan for his side to train on Christmas Day ahead of Tuesday’s clash with Crawley Town.
Back to the actual games and as news broke that following the news on Tuesday that the Gills opponents on the 29th – Sutton United – have sacked manager Matt Gray, there was news before we spoke to Clemence that Forest Green will have a new manager (Troy Deeney) when the Gills arrive on Friday evening.
“I think we’ll still have to focus on ourselves in all the games,” the Gills Head Coach admitted. “You are going into the unknown a little bit as you do not know if there will be a change of system.”
“Are the new managers going to make radical changes to their players? You just do not know, so all we can do is to focus on what we can do well and focus on that, trying to take our game to them, get on the front foot and try and give them some problems.”
“They will have lots of other issues to deal with I am sure, and I know that my squad is more than capable I am sure of giving anybody a game in this division, so no matter what Forest Green do, I would like to think we are more than capable of giving them a game on Friday!”
Clemence told us that he still has a few niggles but otherwise will go into the four festive fixtures with a near full strength squad to choose from.