Gillingham head into Christmas with home games with the United’s of Cambridge and Colchester respectively with Gareth Ainsworth knowing just how big the games are at MEME Priestfield over the holiday weekend. 

To add to the Christmas spice, Cambridge come on Boxing Day with former Gills boss Neil Harris in the dugout – a man that the current Gills boss knows very well as he told KSN at our last briefing of 2025.

Ainsworth said, “He is a top friend and a real good manager for what he has done in the game as a player and a manager.”

“I am looking forward to sharing a touchline with him – I know he was here before me, and I am sure that will add some extra irony to the game and hopefully we will be able to get the points.”

“Tactically they will be very organised, and they will work incredibly hard and that is a Neil Harris side!” 

“You know it is nice when people talk about a manager and what his sides are like because that is an identity and I have heard myself talked about in that vein and that is great as your teams represent you!”

“Neil’s team definitely will be solid and work hard – they are in a good place at the moment after a good run; they have changed their shape mid-season, and it worked well and paid dividends for them!” 

“Neil and I are very similar ages and have played against each other many times; we both could have both probably gone on to win more honours than we did, but certainly never got the lucky breaks…”

“He was top scorer for Millwall in Championship years – wow and he is a really, really top guy as well. We see each other off the pitch and he sent me a lovely message recently about the piece I did with my heart.”

“Neil has been through things earlier in his life with health scares, so there are a lot of similarities between us and the big thing is that we will both want to win on Boxing Day!”

“We will be scrapping, fighting – not literally – both really going for the win and knowing how much every game means… I have huge respect for Neil – I like him a lot having played and managed against him a lot which just adds to the level of looking forward to this one!”  

“We are fully expecting a tough game on Boxing Day which it should be! It may not be a derby as they were historically, but I know that the sides you play at Christmas are close-ish, and we are looking forward to hosting Cambridge, and I want all three points as we are at home!”

“We have had a tough run in the last six games, and we should have put a couple of them to bed without a shadow of a doubt, so hopefully we can put this one to bed!” 

“Having a few of our injured players coming back into the squad is going to be a huge boost for us and for me as there are more goals from different areas, there is more chances created.”

“Goal scoring is something that I have picked up on asking did we have the chances to put the game to bed and so I want us to be more clinical and take our chances when they come.”

The Gills boss wouldn’t name names but did say, “It would be silly to do that over the Christmas period and I will say is that I am looking forward to picking from a decent squad.”

“We tallied up to thirteen injuries at one point which is a lot and as I have said a couple of times recently, if you lose your top players in any position, it hurts all teams, not just Gillingham and it has hurt us and I am looking forward to having the options.”

“The boys who have played have done well, it’s just the boost of players coming back – when you see tired legs out there or changes from the bench, it’s just so big… Am really looking forward to this one – I want to win all four games over Christmas and New Year, it’s crazy for me to say that, but why not? Why not?”

“Why can’t we go into all four of them and expect to win? At the end of the day, this League is so incredibly tight – the team that runs, the team that wins the second ball, the team that is better in both boxes, the set pieces, these are League Two traits and if we get them right and there’s the little bit of magic in the air from the tactics or the individual and abilities that make the difference sometimes.”

“They (Cambridge) have some of those but so have I and I been looking forward to what happens.”