Good Friday marks Ady Pennock’s 100th day in charge of Gillingham, and the man himself knows exactly just how very important Easter 2017 is for the club starting with Good Friday’s visit to Priestfield of Bristol Rovers.
“It’s a massive game for us and we’ve just got to hope that Easter is going to be kind for us,” Pennock told KSN. “We would have hoped to be in a better position but when I took over we knew the situation from day one and we’ve got to stay in this League and by hook or by crook that’s what we’ve got to do.”
100 days on and Pennock reflected on the last four months. “I’ve still got a smile on my face and I am honestly enjoying the job,” he said. “It’s been a massive challenge and there have been a lot of obstacles on and off the pitch to be fair and we knew it would be from day one but I’m still enjoying it – no-one will see me moping about and being sulky and angry; it’s not in my nature, obviously it hurts when we lose – of course it does – I’ve never been one to really show it – but I know that we’ve got to keep smiling and keep positive.”
“We got a lot of positives out of the Millwall game – last week was a good week and this one so far has been better; the suns been out and we can’t wait for Friday afternoon. If things go our way, we could be safe by the end of Easter and that’s the way we must look at it – we’re at home first and we know it’s going to be tough and we’re in a good place mentally at the moment and the boys are chomping at a the bit. We turned up last Saturday against Millwall and all the players put a great shift in and I thought the crowd did as well. So the players know that they’ve got to do again on Friday just as the supporters have got to turn up and be just as vocal again. And we all know that we’ve got to give those supporters something to cheer about – I thought we did that on Saturday. I still think that it’s in our hands – not everyone is going to win their last four games – it’s a big Easter it really is! We beat Bristol Rovers or get a point; we don’t know just how far that could lift us up the table as we just don’t know what the other teams down there will do. Ideally we’d like everyone else to lose as we win – of course that what we all want – we’ve just got to worry about ourselves.”
Pennock then spoke of his available squad for the weekend. “Zesh Rehman’s a worry as he came off towards the end of the Millwall game so he’ll have a fitness test before the game so hopefully he’ll be OK but we’ll leave it as long as possible. Bradley Dack finishes his suspension on Friday so he’ll be back at Charlton on Monday whilst Chris Herd will be involved against Rovers as he’s recovered from his knock. They are a good side who have been together now for a few years. They know each other inside out and have still got a chance of the Play Offs, but as I said before we played Millwall, against the so called better teams who are above us, we seem to turn up for some reason and so that’s what we must do again. We can’t carry anyone and need that little bit of luck as well and give it their all and we’ve got to more than match anything that Rovers have and show the desire and the winning mentality. It won’t be through lack of effort of we don’t do it – you see it in the players eyes every single day.”
“Without doubt this is a huge weekend for the club and is undoubtedly my biggest weekend as a manager. I’ve had Play Off Semi Finals as a manager and player and played in Play Off Finals but this is a big weekend for us… I wish in some way that it was a boring mid table weekend but they will be two great games to be involved in and all I’m asking the fans is to really get behind the players just as they have since I’ve been here from the first whistle to the last home and away, please make Priestfield a very, very noisy place on Good Friday and fingers crossed…”