Steve Lovell is still ruing Fleetwood Town’s late equaliser last weekend that with one kick sent Gillingham from a provisional thirteenth place in League One to the eighteenth berth.
The Gills find themselves going into a massive four days for the club with Oxford United and Bristol Rovers heading for Kent before Tuesday with the League table getting tighter with each round of fixtures.
“It doesn’t surprise me really – we were talking about it the other day in the office,” the Gills boss admitted, “there’s been in the past a lot of teams who have gone up to the Championship who have been teams who have been favoured and there this year wasn’t anyone you could point a finger at and say “you’ll go up!””
“Luton have come onto the scene and had a great season; most probably Barnsley and Portsmouth, most probably the three will, but the rest of them, there a lot of teams there who are not far off the Play Off places and are pretty much the same. You’ve got the Doncaster’s and Fleetwood’s who aren’t that far off it – even clubs like Burton down in twelfth aren’t completely out of it either.”
Lovell was then asked about his side’s near excellent behaviour which has seen dissent cautions fall remarkably. Lovell said, “It’s all about things that happen during the year. You can be lucky getting through the season without any injured or suspended players; you can get unlucky and get injuries at the wrong times. All the sides are the same and don’t carry really carry big squads so if you lose two or three of your main players, it does affect your starting eleven and that is the important thing now is that we’ve got a squad now of twenty one players and they’re all fit with a couple who are still yet to come in.”
“And I think that that’s the most important thing is having a squad that you can rely on – knowing that whatever team you put out within that twenty one, it’s going to be strong and that’s the way we feel.”
“It is controlling it really as I don’t like seeing players getting booked for disciplinary things and that’s something that we’ve really cut down on this year. You’re not going to win with the officials once they’ve given a decision – they’re not going to change it. We haven’t had too many this year – it’s the ones for fouls you can’t do anything about as it’s part of the game. But discipline and “chomps” into the referees is not a way you should go as it could cost you two or three games.”
He was then asked if despite having eleven games still to play were these two games being hyped too much? “People will make out of each game what they will, but we know how big they are – all the players will look at the players and look at the teams and know how big the games are.”
“But it’s like if we were playing Luton and Barnsley on Saturday and Tuesday, it would be the same – it’s the same three points that you’ll be playing for; same three points Saturday, same three points Tuesday, and so you’ve got to try and get the points the best that you can.”
“So whatever team, we’ll be out there trying to play the way that we have been in order to get the result that we need,” the Gills boss said.
He then turned his attention to his injured players beginning with Ricky Holmes. “Ricky is getting better. I really don’t know how close he is yet as it’s one of those things where he could come in one day and he’ll be ready to go. I think it’s a daily thing with him rather than a weekly thing and we’ve got to make sure that he’s one hundred percent right before we allow him back out there, as we don’t want him to get injured again and miss the rest of the season.”
“We’ll be patient with him as we want him fit as soon as possible so that when he does come back, he’ll be of benefit to all of us!”
“It’s Alex’s (Lacey) first full week back training and so to put him straight back in on Saturday would be unfair as if he’s been called upon in the first five minutes then he’d face eighty five minutes. So, to give him another few days to maybe Tuesday (vs Bristol Rovers) or perhaps next Saturday (at Luton Town), Alex will be ready to for my view and completely confident for him to me involved as if he’s needed then I know what we’ll get out of him.”
“Billy’s (Bingham) getting there – he’s getting better by the day, but again with Billy, he’s been so unlucky as it’s not just been the one injury – he’s had a lot of different ones. But this one – the calf – you’ve got to be careful with it, but he won’t be too long, definitely not as long as we first feared which is good news as well, which is good news for all of us.”
The Gills boss ended by paying tribute to skipper Max Ehmer who will be making his 200th appearance for the club this weekend – just the seventy five behind Lovell himself!
“You don’t see a lot of it at one club these days, do you?” the boss admitted. He went onto to praise his skipper – “We’ve both been at the club for around the same length of time and he’s been a great professional on and off the field. He’s a good lad and he’s had another brilliant year with us.”
“So, I’m delighted he’s got to the 200 and hopefully a lot more and you talk about consistency and Max is one of the ones in the team that you always know what you’re going to get from him week in, week out. That’s something else you don’t see a lot these day – I’m really pleased for him and here’s to the next 200 more...”