Midfielder Armani Little returned for Gillingham in last weekend’s draw at Swindon Town and is raring to go as the Emirates FA Cup returns to Priestfield this weekend as former winners Blackpool come to Kent for this season’s First Round. 

“My biggest FA Cup memory,” Little told KSN this week, “was when Portsmouth won in it in 2008 as I’m a big Pompey fan!” 

Looking at the tie the Gills have at the weekend, Little said, “We look to go into every game to come out winners, and so Saturday will be a challenge to put our recent disappointments behind us and try to get that positive performance on Saturday.”

“We have had a really frustrating month – we all know that as a group and we know that we have not been good enough or consistent enough – as a group we want to bounce back and put October behind us now and this weekend gives us a great chance to start the new month afresh really!” 

“It’s sometimes good to have an FA Cup game to take you away from the League and puts you into a one-off game – we have been working this week on what we have to do and have had a good week in training.”

“We want to go into the game and win as it will put us in good stead for the next League game (leaders Port Vale visit on November 9th), if you have just won a game, which we need to be fair, and hopefully we can get into the next round and Monday’s draw.” 

“We know that Blackpool have a good side from the League above and definitely have some good players who can hurt us – it has to be about us sticking to our game plan and knowing we need to do to try and hurt them ourselves – it will be a good challenge and we are all looking forward to it.” 

When playing at lower levels, Little has been part of upsets before as he recalled, “With Worthing we went to Swindon and won there before we played Watford at home which was a really special day – it’s always good experience for teams who are down the pyramid.” 

“Everyone in our dressing room know that we are more than capable of getting a result on Saturday so we have to focus on what we have to do to win the game and going into it, I have had a frustrating time missing a few games through injury after picking up a knock, but I am back now and raring to go Saturday.”

“It has been great to have been welcomed and had some great praise from the fans – I just need to now keep working hard and try to be consistent in my performances.”

“When we were winning, we were still doing the same things as when we have been losing – analysing performances; looking at what we can improve on – it’s been the same; we know that we haven’t wanted to be where we are in the last four or five games so hopefully it is a fresh week and we can put that all behind us now.”