Gillingham make the long trip North this weekend to face a Crewe Alexandra side who themselves are chasing a place in the SKYBet League Two play-offs.
Gareth Ainsworth takes his side North after seeing them take nine points in their last five games to sit just a handful of points outside the top seven, with a game in hand. Speaking to the Gills boss at this week’s briefing, he told us, “Both teams probably have very similar ambitions – we are both looking to see how far we can progress and have the play-offs just above us.
“Crewe a bit closer than us at the moment but they have played at least one more game, we have to make sure that we travel with the belief that we can go up there and win the game because we want to get as close as we can to the play-offs.” “
“I think it’s a very different season to last year – we are already close to the points total that we had in March when we first walked in with nine games left (the Gills travel this weekend with still seventeen League Two games left in the season) – it really will be a question from now of exactly how much we can do from here.”
“We have a couple of very tough games coming up away from home – Crewe Saturday and Chesterfield on Tuesday – and both clubs have the same ambitions as us; going for the play-offs and progress out of League Two. We have to make sure that we believe we can win both games and take something away from both. We had a fantastic result last Saturday beating Tranmere despite hanging on at the end and we are looking forward to this next test!”
“I said to the boys at training Thursday morning that there is still a long, long way to go and I will repeat that to anyone watching, listening or reading these words! We will not win every game; I have said all the way along that there will be hic-cups, there will be defeats and it’s all about how we react to them.
“We go into every game believing that we can beat the team in front of us. I watched Swindon on the TV this week and I believe that we can beat them and they are in second place in the table. I am really excited for these next games but I am also keeping myself grounded, making sure that we don’t get carried away – we are still a work in progress and there will be hic-cups, it really is all about how you react as it really is the mental side now as we are coming to the business end of another season and its exciting times.”
Reflecting on the predicted conditions, Ainsworth said, “I think the Crewe is down for some snow Friday up there and it will be very cold on the day, but that’s the North for you!” the boss said smiling, “Some of us are used to that!” he added, with his Lancastrian roots showing!
Squad news and Ainsworth confirmed that Conor Masterson and Nelson Khumbeni are both still absent, although Khumbeni is now back training on the grass. “He was spotted down the training ground Thursday which is brilliant,” the manager said smiling.
“Everyone else is back – Marcus (Wylie) is back, Lennie (Cirino) is back and we had a good behind closed doors run out on Tuesday and everyone is looking for a place in the squad now.”
“I’d also like to congratulate Cameron (Antwi) and his wife who had a baby this week, so he’s had a big week! We are all ready to put ourselves forward and we are really pleased where we are a squad and the output is going to be crucial in these seventeen games – we will have to make sure that our output is absolutely spot on because this is the stage of the season when you can put teams to the sword!”