Gillingham have an early opportunity to erase the horror of their recent defeat at Barrow as they again head to Cumbria this weekend, this time to face a Carlisle United side who are currently bottom of the Football League with manager John Coleman still looking for that first win.

Like the Gills themselves, Carlisle have a “new” manager too in former Welsh international Mark Hughes, but for John Coleman after coming so close to his first Gillingham win in their last two games, will it be third time lucky and a first three points?  

That was the question when KSN met with the Gills boss at this week’s briefing given the much better showing of the side against Walsall and Crewe Alexandra.

“I don’t really like saying that they were John Coleman team performances,” the manager admitted, adding, “It’s not really my style. Myself and Jimmy over the years have tried to create an atmosphere where the players enjoy coming to work, enjoy working hard when they come to work and then enjoy playing – working hard and playing hard on a Saturday and Tuesday.”

“We have tried to create that environment – you can’t just wave the magic wand and it appears for you… players have to buy in and see a purpose of what you are trying to do, and I think that a lot of the players are getting to understand us now.” 

“I was seeing signs of Gillingham playing the way that myself and Jimmy have molded teams especially on Saturday… I am lot happier now than I was for two days after Barrow, but I am still not satisfied.”

“And I think as soon as you are satisfied as a manager with a draw – and remember we still haven’t won by the way – the minute you are satisfied with draws at home, and I know we got a load of “bouquets” thrown at us on Saturday, we drew at home!”

“And the day that I am happy with a draw at home, I will pack in football! It’s wrong in every sense – you cannot be satisfied with a draw at home… Whilst I was pleased with the point and the way we went about the performance – I was proud that the lads gave their all, I was bitterly disappointed with the result!” 

“I think that it felt like a win because the players and the fans gave each other something, so that certainly felt like a “mini win” but a win is three points and somehow, we have got to get that.”

“Now I know over the years everyone will say you’d sooner play rubbish and win, but it’s not always the case as if you get yourself playing in form, and playing the way, you want to play and believe that you can play, dominating the opposition even if you don’t win, you will eventually.”

“If you’re nicking the odd win here and there not playing well, that cannot last. I’m all for sustainability – I want the points and I would take anything off someone’s back-side for a 1-0 every day, but I still want to be playing well, I still want to see us going forward, still want us to give the fans something to cheer about and give them something to believe that this is Gillingham and we are a Gillingham team, and Gillingham teams over the years have always pushed you back, worked you hard, pinned you in, and that’s what I want to get back to.”

“I don’t want to “just” be that I want this team to be a better version and that will take hard work!”   

When asked about any personal battles that he may have had with Hughes, the Gills boss said, “Don’t think that I’ve played many competitive games against his sides – remember a League Cup game and a couple of others, but he’s a man of great experience of course, and was an unbelievable player of course as well, and it will be good to pit our wits against him at the weekend to see what we can do.” 

“Both sides need the points – we’ll have to wait to see how they line up as I guess they will be desperate to get the three points, and we have to go in there with the mentality that we want the points as well.”

“So, it might be a bit of cat and mouse – who goes gung-ho first? – but we have done our homework on Carlisle as I am sure that they will have done theirs on us!”

“The lads are slowly starting to fall into a style of playing that suits us – it has to be high tempo and it has to be high energy and I think that we have seen that quite a bit in the last two games and we’re going to try and stretch that even further and add quality to that, as I think a little bit of quality at times has let us down since I have been here and watching the games before I came. It’s something that we certainly would like to improve on.” 

Coleman ended by updating news of his squad – Joe Gbode and Aaron Rowe are both in the squad and will travel. The boss then confirmed that most of the squad were training on the grass on Thursday, saying Marcus Wyllie, Jonny Williams and Conor Masterson all joined in and Coleman admitted that hopefully all three will be in contention soon, maybe as early as Tuesday’s home game with Fleetwood Town.