Gillingham top scorer Tom Eaves has been talking to KSN about the next week which could be a massive one for the club.

It begins with a trip to Oxford United this weekend, with the home side struggling in League One’s bottom four, the Gills striker admitted, “Nothing surprises me in this League anymore – nothing surprises me to be honest.”

“Even now there’s not a stand out team who you look at and think they’re going to run away with it. From a personal point of view, we’ve played against teams who have had good performances against us, but haven’t really taken my breath away.”

“It keeps you on your toes as a player as you’ve got to make sure that you prepare for every single game. Every team presents a different challenge – for me personally it’s the central defenders – you have to keep yourselves in good fettle for every game.”

Gills boss Steve Lovell has spoken on numerous occasions this season of his hopes for his talismanic striker, something that isn’t lost on Eaves, who said, “As someone who knows the club, has played for the club and has the sort of prestige within the club like the Gaffer has, he’s a great one for someone like me to learn from.”

“Who could I possibly learn and do better from than someone who has actually done it for the club? He scored a lot of goals down there on the Priestfield pitch and who better for me to learn from?”

We then reflected on the disappointing Cup draw of last weekend and the eerie like atmosphere within Priestfield.

“It was a strange atmosphere especially with the two stands closed,” he said.  “It did feel a bit strange and I didn’t like it, but we can’t use it as an excuse as both sides had to play in it. I saw the draw and saw Slough or Sutton come up, but we’ve got to do a job up there next week before we can even think about it.”

“Playing Wednesday will mean that we’ll have to change a few things in the way we prepare, and it’ll mean that I won’t have to cook for the missus!”

“But first up is Oxford on Saturday – we’ll go there to hopefully carry on the run and get three more points that will give us the boost into the replay and Luton at home next week…”