Gillingham welcome Crawley Town to MEMS Priestfield this weekend looking for back-to-back League wins for the first time in a couple of months and their first win at Priestfield since September. 

Midfielder Ethan Coleman was the player who KSN talked to this week in the build-up to the game and he told us, “We are all excited for the weekend coming off the back of a good win away from home at Bristol Rovers which was important for us. Morale is good going into the weekend!” 

“It was important to get the win, and we are going for back-to back wins now which is important for momentum which is what we want. We know that we can do it with this group of players, we now just have to push on.” 

“It was great to have the Gaffer (Gareth Ainsworth) back last week, its great energy he brings to the squad and to us as players we love that and buzz off that, and it was great.  

“He was in the dressing room both before and after the game and at half time, It is important for us to have him back; when you have had a manager missing it is quite tough, but hopefully I feel like we have come through that now and he’s back – it’s all positive and it’s all rosy!  

“We know that we could have had the same run under the Gaffer as we have had in his absence, but he brings so much positivity in bundles, and the fans love him too as we all showed at the final whistle last weekend at Bristol.” 

“We put bodies on the line last week, Jake (Turner) made a great save, Dacky (Bradley Dack) cleared one off the line and sometimes you need things like that – the grit and determination to come out and win a game of football and that is exactly what we did at Bristol last weekend; there were other tackles and clearances too but we got the win which was massive.” 

With Jonny Smith and Gareth McLeary returning to the squad, competition for those midfield spaces is fierce, but that doesn’t bother Coleman who said, “When you have that experience, it will help any squad any team and to have them back in the match-day squad will be very helpful. 

“They know the league and the competition for places is massively important as I think that when you have within a squad the quality that we have within this level, I think it’s important to have competition as you are fighting for your place every week, week in, week out. 

“It makes you perform to your best week in, week out and that’s what you always want from your team-mates and its certainly what you want from yourself – there’s no room for a bad performance and that’s the position that you should always be in in a squad looking to achieve good things!” 

“Crawley have a possession style of play,” Coleman said looking directly to Saturday evening – with the game “live” on SKY, the kick off at MEMS Priestfield is 5.30pm.  

“They have a good style of play, but I think we can act on their weaknesses and really try and dominate the game in the way that we want to and go on from there.”