Gillingham boss Gareth Ainsworth goes head-to-head with one of his predecessors at MEMS Priestfield this weekend as Steve Evans brings his Bristol Rovers side to Kent as the Gills look to make it three wins in a row.

Following last weekend’s 2-0 Priestfield win over Tranmere Rovers which itself followed on from the win at Rochdale, Ainsworth’s new-look side continues to begin to take shape, but the Gills boss has an idea what to expect from Evans’ Rovers on Saturday.

Speaking to KSN this week, Ainsworth told us, “You can’t expect too much in football but it’s what I desire, and I want that performance against Tranmere last weekend to be the norm.”

“I want us to get to those levels fitness wise, running wise, making angles for each other, defending, counter attacking, now that we are a team that tried to keep possession a little bit more… all the little bits that we try to work on in training and hopefully we can get the result on Saturday and make it three wins in a row.”

“But it will be tough,” he went on, “this League is tough with everyone trying to do exactly the same thing as you, whilst doing the exact same thing to you as well so it’s not easy just to go out there and put a great performance on or a winning scoreline – it is harder than that, but we are in a good place now, a very good place.”

“We have some good players and still have some good players injured – we will have a really good team at one stage and a really good squad to select from, but at the moment, the guys with the shirts are playing out of their skin and fully deserving their wins!”

“I think this Saturday will be very similar to last week. I have got an even more experienced manager in opposition than Darrell Clarke was from last weekend in Steve (Evans), who has had some real good success in his career – we all know about his style and how he gets the best out of his players; he really does you know, he gets fantastic results out of teams and his teams must be respected and feared!”

“We have to give them all of that before the game and then we get out on the Priestfield pitch make sure that we play with supreme confidence and supreme willingness and togetherness – I haven’t mentioned football once yet – the football will come, but those traits they are me through and through and people will win you games, not tactics, not formations, just people, so the right people turn up on the pitch when the whistle goes.”

“If I have the right people on the pitch, I know that we will have a real chance to win on Saturday.”

“But any Steve Evans team will be organised, will be strong, they will run through brick walls for Steve and tackle hard, but they are all things that you have to do in League Two, my teams have always done that and I’m adding some gloss to my style now and I am really enjoying doing that.”

“Looking at training and speaking to my coaches, there have been loads of changes with seventy-five percent new faces! You look round and think, “he’s new, he’s new, some coming back from injuries and knocks that people haven’t even seen yet and it’s brilliant!”

“I am really looking forward to seeing what they can all do; it’s definitely my team to be judged on now and I have always said that!”

“It’s been hard because I know that football fans all want the results yesterday and they want success yesterday, I have always said that it will take a little bit of time, but come at me now if my team is poor as I will be going at them as the standards are set now – the players have been great and I am hoping now that we can be successful with this group.”