Gillingham striker Tom Eaves has been reflecting on last Sunday’s FA Cup win over Slough Town with KSN and admitted it wasn’t an afternoon he particularly enjoyed.

Darren Oldaker’s goal early in the second half was enough for the Gills, but the club’s top scorer admitted, “It was tough as I really dislike playing on astro-turf.”

“It’s just a completely different game and I really don’t like playing on it and I won’t like to see it in the Football League if I’m honest.”

“But the bottom line is that we did the job – even if the win was a bit ugly, but we were obviously delighted to be in the hat for the next round and to draw a Premier League team too.”

“We haven’t won enough games when we’ve not been playing great – we appreciate that people want to see us winning playing good football and I accept that, but how many of them last Sunday were just pleased to see us in the next round – it really doesn’t matter how you win it, so long as you do.”

And so onto a date with Cardiff City in the New Year; “it’s a fantastic draw for us and I genuinely believe that it’s a winnable game, I really do!”

“It will be interesting to see what side they send obviously as opposed to their Premier League games. I was praying for Liverpool at Anfield if I’m honest, but we’re going to look forward to it, but we’ve a very, very busy period over the next few weeks before we can even think about Cardiff.”

“It’s so important over the next few weeks that we get the playing, recovering, playing, recovering, pattern right.”

“Competition helps too in your recovery. When you see people training well, you know yourself that you’ve got to do things right to stay in the team. Sometimes it’s good to be looking behind your shoulder, as I don’t think it’s ever good to get comfortable in anything that you’re doing as it’s then that you start slipping.”

Eaves is in the second of a two-year deal at Priestfield and there has already been some speculation in other media outlets as to the striker’s future, not that he is put off by the comments as he explained.

“I expect the questions as people want to know these things – are people staying or going or whatever. I can just say that it’s being dealt with in the background and I appreciate that it’s hard, but I just want to concentrate on my football and that’s what I’m going to do!”

“That’s why I have people represent me, for looking after my best interests and getting the best deal for me and my family. It is after all, just like any other job really! I’m really enjoying playing week in, week out for the club and we’ll see what happens when the time comes…”

The Gills go into this weekend’s game at Scunthorpe knowing that a repeat of last season’s win will take them further still away from the relegation zone.

“I was watching the highlights the other day,” Eaves said, “and I think it was Lee Martin who got us on the scoresheet early on and I was glad to get on the scoresheet too in a good win.”

“It’s always a tough place to go and another long trip for us as well – we’ve just got to go and try and get a result to really set us up for the rest of December.”