After last weekend’s last gasp winner at Barrow, Gillingham boss Gareth Ainsworth has called on his players to come good at MEMS Priestfield this Saturday against Fleetwood Town.

Robbie McKenzie’s one hundred and third minute winner gave the Gills the points as the players rebounded from the horror show of the previous week against Oldham Athletic at home base, and Ainsworth is keen for his side to put things right.

“We want to get back to winning ways at home. It was the only time that I have been bitterly disappointed after a game since I have been here. I looked at the game afterwards and picked the bones out of it and the players definitely went to Barrow to put it right and they definitely did. They backed themselves to go to Barrow and win and they did!

“I am trying to change things as we all know, and it wasn’t going to be easy or done overnight. I think the start we had probably gave the expectations too much of a heighten. You have to remember that this club hasn’t done brilliant for a few years, and I am coming in to change that!

“Give me a bit of time because it has been a few years and you need time to change and hopefully, we will be able to give the fans something to cheer about as we don’t want them on our backs to start and we will be trying absolutely everything to put some smiles on some Gillingham faces!”

“We have had one game this season where we haven’t performed very well – we don’t need to get it out of our system as all the other games except Oldham we have been in. We have had goalkeepers getting man of the match awards against us, we’ve had some strange luck and I have even had a referee apologise to me after a game for not giving Sam Vokes a penalty… these things happen!

“When you are struggling for a result, they always seem to go against you, whilst when you’re at the top, you seem to get all the penalties and all the decisions! For me, I just want my boys to empty their tanks on the pitch and that’s good enough for me. I know that we have enough in this squad to win this game, but Fleetwood are a good side, and they will be thinking the same!” 

Reflecting on the late Cumbrian drama from last weekend, Ainsworth told us, “A win is always nice – the 237 fans that made the long trip to be there were witnessing it; a long journey home it really was – it was fantastic support, it really was and it was about time that we had a little bit of luck with a set-piece that just lands at my players feet!

“We’ve had it against us quite a bit, but it was really, really pleasing, and the pleasing fact was that we limited Barrow to zero shots on target – the only shots at our goal were from range – we attacked well and were a threat all game and finally broke them down!”

“It will be a different story on Saturday without a doubt against a completely different team. We know what we want to play like, we know how we want to be, and I watched them in the week – I wanted to go to the Kent Senior Cup game with Tonbridge with the young boys, but I chose to watch the Fleetwood game as I thought it would be more productive for me as we have them this weekend, but I got glowing reports on some of the young boys as well which was great!”

“We had eyes everywhere Tuesday night, but mine were firmly on Fleetwood and what they were doing…”

“They (Fleetwood) will give us a tough game,” Ainsworth went on. “I watched them on Tuesday (beating Walsall 1-0), and it was a good result for them. Walsall out them under pressure but they were able to see out the game for a 1-0 win. They have some good form of late which is something we have to be aware of. We want to get back to winning ways at home, but this is yet another tough test in League Two and we have to be at it as games come thick and fast after this one and we will be using everyone to make sure that we share the load.

“We have quality when we do it, we play with quality, we play with belief, we play with an attitude that we want to win the game, especially at home and that is big for me!”