Gillingham skipper Stuart O’Keefe is fully focused on completing the side’s “Great Escape” on Saturday lunchtime as Neil Harris’ side prepare for arguably their biggest League game in more than a decade.

What separates Gillingham and the trap door into League Two is Rotherham United who visit Priestfield seeking promotion and a possible League One Championship.

With both sides having so much to play for, the Gills skipper was asked if that would be a help or hindrance to the survival battle – he told us, “That’s a tough question! We said in the dressing room if they’d won the other night at Sunderland and already secured promotion, could they be off the pace a little come Saturday as they might have been on the beer for a couple of days…”

“That said, it could have worked against us too and they’d be free of all the pressure that they are still under. Bottom line, we cannot worry about them – they will be nervous as well as they have still got a lot to play for, but we’ve just got to worry about ourselves and get the result we need against them.”

“Since the Gaffer’s come in, there’s been a lift all round the place – in the dressing room and in the stands which has been massive,” O’Keefe admitted, “I think we’d noticed that even after the Crewe game when we got the win!”

“We hadn’t won in a while and when we won that night, it felt like then, even though he’d only been in the building forty-eight hours, that we’d just started to stop the rot and turn the tide if we could.”

“Obviously, it was a massive task for everyone, but we’ve put ourselves in a position that many people didn’t think – well not many people outside Neil Harris and the rest of our squad thought we would be in.”

“So, it’s a credit to everyone and we’d have taken this position when the Gaffer took over against Crewe, so we’ve got to make the most of it on Saturday.”

“We’ve looked at all the scenarios as we’re only human – we’ve looked at every possible outcome… if they beat them, or if they beat them, and whilst Fleetwood are only just above us, Morecambe are still very much in the picture, and they’ll be saying that they need to get something against Sunderland.”

“I’m sure that they’re fully aware that if they don’t get something, and we and Fleetwood get something, they’ll be dragged right back into it. The others will take care of themselves – we’ve just got to make sure that we get a result.”

“We don’t want to be in the position where the others lose and we do as well as that will be gutting, so we’ve got to give ourselves every opportunity to just go gung-ho and give it everything, we’ve got for one final push and what will be, will be come half past two on Saturday.”