Gillingham entertain Tranmere Rovers at MEMS Priestfield this weekend with boss Gareth Ainsworth in no doubt that his side are finally ready to win their first home game of the season following last weekend’s 4-1 away drubbing of Rochdale. 

Speaking to KSN this weekend, Ainsworth was clearly still delighted at the way his charges beat the Football League’s newest club on the road – he told us, “Wins help and wins cheer everybody up, but it’s the nature of things and the way that we are doing things at the moment that form is everything, processes and results come and they are all a by-product of all the hard work that people put in. And the boys are certainly working hard, and there were some fantastic goals at Rochdale weren’t there?” 

“It’s been coming for a while I think… Walsall certainly for eighty minutes; Northampton at home as we really wanted to win those games and those points on the road at Chesterfield and Fleetwood look like cracking points now looking and knowing about both of them at the moment.  

“It really was brilliant to go to Rochdale and perform the way that we did. Even against adversity again and losing two players after eighteen minutes – my loan signing who has only been in the building two days and a stalwart up front for us, this group has shown once again how resilient they are and how adaptable they are – the boys delivered, they delivered really well – well pleased with the win but it’s all of the little things that the boys overcame that mean so much to me!” 

“James Brophy’s second goal, as I said at the time, if that was scored in one of the top leagues in Europe, you’d be seeing it for six months, let alone six days!  

“James is a brilliant lad – he typifies the energy in that dressing room, smiling, always finds the positive in anything, and wants to succeed so much and you can tell from the career that he has had and it was brilliant to see him score that goal – it was a tremendous goal and eclipses anything that I did!” Ainsworth said grinning!  

“His feet are right on the ground as let’s not forget that his first one was a cracker as well – he’s very experienced grounded and a level-headed guy who gets the young boys going and gets them through tough times. In the absence of so many off the pitch, James has come through to be a real true leader, leading in his own special way and we couldn’t do without him at the moment!”  

Eli King’s performance off the bench at the weekend had the Gills fans baying for more after the boss had he wasn’t sure on the Cardiff signing’s fitness! “Think I said the wrong thing,” the Gills boss shrugged!  

“He was superb when he came on. He had been out with a cruciate for nine months and has only played a couple of first team games for Cardiff in the early stages of pre-season which really don’t have a massive bearing on anything and then he played seventy-five minutes in an under 23s games where you do not get the intensity of first team games.  

“He wasn’t fully ready – he was well under cooked and we are doing our best now to make sure that he is ready, because I thought he was sensational – it’s exciting to see someone who gets on the ball like that and I think we have been crying out for that.  

“He has a good stature on him, he finds a pass but does it in such a way that he takes players out of the game – it really is a special talent that some midfielders do not have, Eli has the knack of moving players out of the game and that’s a real good trait to have – he is a special player and hopefully we can get the best out of him!” 

Tranmere are the opposition for Ainsworth and Gillingham at the weekend, and Ainsworth told us, “Darrell Clarke, the boss is a very good friend of mine, he’s managed a lot of clubs and has a certain way of managing which is very successful and probably started around the same time as me – I think we cut our teeth together and have come across each other quite a lot with different teams.  

“I know what his team will bring, I know the kind of manager he is, but he knows exactly the same about me! I think that we are two of the most experienced managers in the league up there with Ian Holloway and Steve Cotterill. It is two “oldens” coming up against each other, let’s see what happens!”