In his latest column for KSN, Lewis Browning looks at all things Gillingham. AFC Wimbledon is on the horizon and it’s a really tough game to for predict.

We’re in good form, especially at home, and we have no reason to fear them. They aren’t exactly flying with three draws in a row and they sit 14th in the league table.

Johnnie Jackson is an inexperienced manager and there’s potential with him and the squad they’ve got there but they aren’t up to much this year. We should almost expect a win at this point.

They’re a bogey team for us, however. I said on a show I was on yesterday that when I think of Wimbledon I think of them starting and ending our unbeaten run under Steve Evans, the League Two title winning game, and the disaster at the start of this season.

Rochdale was a professional performance, and we were fine. They were incredibly bad. You only have to watch back George Lapslie’s goal and see how much time Tom Nichols had on the ball and you can tell they are in big trouble.

I’d be staggered if it’s not them and Hartlepool that go down, although Hartlepool have had perhaps one final roll of the dice and replaced Keith Curle with John Askey.

We don’t need to look down anymore I don’t think. We’re four points clear of Crawley and though they have a game in hand on us, we have loads on other teams down there and we’re a completely different outfit now.

Five wins and a draw in our last seven is an exceptional turnaround and Neil Harris and the team deserve immense credit. We’ve got from singing that players aren’t fit to wear the shirt two months ago to enjoying a historical period in our club’s history.

Brad and Shannon Galinson have been told a hundred times over how much they’ve done for the club but they’ve genuinely changed the lives of many. Football means so, so much to some people and for many to see their club turn around like it has done is quite an emotional thing.

We’re not going to make the play-offs so it’s hard to tell what we’ll want to achieve this year. People behind their scenes will have their specific aims but I guess we generally want to finish as well as possible, get as much as we can in place for next year and avoid the minimal risk we have of relegation.

I’m sure a number of players of high quality will arrive at the end of the season – we’ve all the seen the ‘imagine summer’ tweet from Brad – so I guess players now are almost playing for their shirts, especially those that were here before the takeover.

The players that arrived in January have pretty much all been successes. I’m loving the new strike partnership of Oliver Hawkins and Tom Nichols – buzzing for Oli to get two in two by the way – and George Lapslie is simply fantastic. What a player he is.

Speaking of players, I must give a shoutout to Olly Lee. He’s obviously retired due to a medical diagnosis, and that’s gutting for him and us fans. Players come and go, but he’s going for a reason sadder than most. I wonder how a fully fit Lee would have done in this team.

Two home games in a row now bode well for us with three home wins on the bounce in the locker. I expect Harris will pick a team similar to the Rochdale game, maybe with Nichols back in.

Aiden O’Brien wasn’t at his best in Rochdale and he’s said himself he’s not fully fit, but he looks some player and when he gets there we’ll have a serious talent on our hands. From what I’ve seen so far, I’d like his deal to become permanent in the summer.

I’d like to see Hawkins, O’Brien and Nichols all play but that maybe leaves a balance issue in midfield or would result in dropping one of Timothee Dieng, Dom Jefferies or Lapslie. I don’t think it’s right to do any of that at the minute.

Whatever we go with I’m sure all the key names will get on the field as we go for another big win and then the turnaround is quick for Bradford. Six points from those two and we’re flying. We’ll see.

Picture supplied by Gillingham Football Club.