Gillingham are back on their travels this weekend as Gareth Ainsworth’s side head North West again looking to keep their unbeaten start to the season and the manager is keen to keep the unbeaten League run since joining in March going. 

After starting with a draw against Accrington Stanley, Bradley Dack scored the only goal of the game against Walsall in the MEMS Priestfield sunshine and despite their cup exit on Tuesday night, the continuing signs of progress are there for all to see! 

“Thought we were really, really good the other night,” the Gills boss said about his side’s Carabao cup exit on penalties to AFC Wimbledon from League One.  

“I couldn’t have asked for any more effort from the boys. We changed the team at the start, six players I believe, yet I didn’t see a drop in level in intensity from our win over Walsall last weekend, which is really good!”

“That’s great to see in the squad as everyone feels that they can and want to play in the first team and to me that’s good, there is no set eleven, it’s the players I pick who do the job.”

“We are on a good run, fourteen unbeaten which is really great, and only losing to Wimbledon on penalties and they can go either way, it’s crazy!” 

“We are really happy with where we are as a group, the boys are in a good place; they are really positive, they are really happy, the fans are there right with us as they understand what is going on and what we are trying to do for them.”

“It’s early days and that’s what I have been saying for a while, we have some good experience in the squad now and we had both Aaron Rowe and Sam Vokes training with us Thursday which is great and hopefully at least one of them will make the trip on Saturday.”

“We have to make sure that we are competitive in these games, they are tight games; we don’t blow teams away just for the sake of it. I have some good selection headaches again this week. Shad (Ogie) came off the other night so we’ll have to see how he is; Conor (Masterson) came off at the weekend, so we’ll have to assess him. We have a good group of boys and are really looking forward to the game.” 

On Saturday the Gills head to Merseyside’s “third” side, with Prenton Park their destination to face Tranmere Rovers, Ainsworth said, “Tranmere have been good at the start of the season and have had some good results, away to Colchester and a good win against Shrewsbury last week.”

“They look very threatening going forward and I think we have to respect that! We have been training well together and we are looking forward to it, I think we have hit the ground running this season and carried on from where we finished last year.”

“It’s going to be a tough game especially away from home and as is always the case, we will be looking to bring something back and hopefully it will be all three points – that’s definitely what we will be going for, but we have to be aware that Tranmere under Andy Crosby are a different animal from the one we saw last season and we have to respect them for that.” 

“The one thing that losing Tuesday night does do is to give us a week off in a couple of weeks time when we now won’t have a Tuesday night game and that will perhaps give us some time that we might need, but I would have loved to progress in the competition – they (AFC Wimbledon) I think have a trip to Reading in the next round and Grimsby play Man United; brilliant, the second round so good luck to those boys, but we can now focus on the campaign.”

“We’re still in the FA Cup and Football League Trophy obviously and we want to do well in both of them, but this League campaign for me is now is the continuing journey.”

“The momentum at the football club whether in the team or the whole club as a whole have needed to change momentum for the past three years or so. I think the signs are there that it’s starting so let’s hope we can get a good result on Saturday and keep this going!”