Gillingham head to Manchester this weekend to face a Salford City side bidding for the League Two play-offs as Gareth Ainsworth’s side look to make it three games unbeaten at the back end of the season.

Good Friday’s well-earned point at Walsall and Easter Monday’s win over Accrington has left Priestfield in good spirits and the manager too… 

“Winning a game is brilliant and I know that I keep going back to some of the stronger players returning, I was really impressed with the youngsters and some good performances from a couple who aren’t regulars in the team, but we needed that!

“A home win in front of the fans and the Easter weekend has turned what was becoming a tough situation… the defeats weren’t great, but even though the fans were still with us, and I really do think people understand what we are trying to do… I think the run we had at the start of the season glossed over a few things – it is coming believe me – but for the boys it was nice, for my staff and especially the fans, it was great to have a win a Priestfield and I thought we were really good value for it!”

“Walsall was a little bit different – we had to dig deep and come back from a goal behind, going in front and then having another knock back, the game could have gone either way at the end, but we showed some real class – the first goal was a real special one! In think people have seen now that we can play a little different at times when we want to!”

“Mondays performance was really solid and we didn’t have a shot to face on target and that is something special for the defenders; we way we broke midfield up and the way we attacked with those front four was clinical and very exciting and that’s how I want to be, I have always said that I want to put it on teams with Gillingham and that’s my style and I want to do that!

“Hopefully we can keep doing that – it was really nice and we know that we have some tough games ahead of us at Salford, Grimsby, Barnet, and then Cheltenham and Shrewsbury who are both below – every game in League Two is tough we know that and it is a very respectful division to be in.”

“Going back to Salford was a revisit of one of my first trips here as manager and the next one is back at Salford again!” 

“I don’t think anyone is going to be surprised as to how my teams are and how they are playing – they’re never going to stop scrapping and trying – Salford have got quality; the spent quite a bit of money in the window and have some talented youngsters. I understand that they have changed shapes in their past few games, and it will be interesting to see what Karl (Robinson, the Salford boss) does.

“They have been a solid top six side all season and it’s no surprise to see them where they are – it looks like it will be play-off or automatics, and we want a say in that on Saturday trying to tale all three points – my target now is to beat last year’s total fifty-six points, so seven more will equal that and I want that and I see no reason why we can’t get to fifty-eight by the final whistle of the Shrewsbury game on the last day!”