Gillingham welcome Cheltenham Town this weekend with assistant boss Richard Dobson looking forward to taking the team at home for the first time, although as he revealed to KSN this week, it’s not the first time that Gareth Ainsworth’s number two has overseen a team at MEMS Priestfield. 

“It was a while ago,” Dobson recalled. “I was Peter Taylor’s number two at Wycombe Wanderers, and he was sacked on a Friday before we came to Priestfield on the Saturday.”  

That was back in 2009, a 3-2 win for the Gills, who were led at the time by Mark Stimson and were on their way to the League Two play-off Final. “Simeon Jackson, late winner – chipped into the far corner I think,” Dobson said ruefully through gritted teeth, but smiling! 

This weekend, with boss Ainsworth recovering from his recent operation, it will be the Gills bench that Dobson heads for in charge, and he told us, “The good news is that Gareth is recovering well, and we were expecting him released from hospital either Thursday or Friday this week, he was released Wednesday! I’ve spoken to him a couple of times this week and he sounds so much better just in those days and we can’t wait, though we won’t rush him, to have the Gaffer back at Priestfield!” 

Cheltenham arrive in Kent with a new “old” manager and after a win last weekend in Steve Cotterill’s first game back at the Club for a second time some twenty-three years after taking them into the Football League giving Dobson a headache as he explained.  

“A new manager always makes a difference,” he admitted. “They have a different way of playing now which we have studied and changed what we had expected – he (Cotterill) is well organised and good at what he does, a very experienced manager and it will be a good test for us.  

“We will have to find different ways to break them down. I expect that they will run hard for him, a new manager and a win last weekend, it’s a very different proposition to the one that we would have had two weeks ago!” 

“Steve is intense and a winner who will want to get a win at the weekend and want to get on a roll there and kick-start their season so we know that it will be a difficult test, a different test, but we know that we are at home and are looking forward to the challenge as we always do and it will be great to get outside and play in front of Priestfield again. 

When asked about his line-up, all Dobson would say is that the Gills have injury concerns without going into detail, but he did confirm that striker Josh Andrews will be missing at Priestfield due to suspension. “The medical team is working very hard to get players back in the fold, but we just have to wait and see if anyone is back for Saturday.” 

“After having such a good start, I was always interested to see what we would be like after a defeat,” Dobson continued, “It was the one thing that we hadn’t experienced and I wanted to see why in the past there had been a slump; was there a reason behind that! Would the group suddenly split when the results go against them?  

“I can tell you that I haven’t seen any of that whatsoever, I see a determined group; a group that wants to be successful together and are all pulling in the same direction! I have no issues with anything that I have seen since we lost to Harrogate, I know that sometimes there are fine margins; last weekend for example when we go three-nil down it looks like a disaster.  

“But if you take the emotion out of it, and we showed the boys a slide the other day, I think we topped every statistic against MK Dons but because of the story of the game and the way the scoring went, it looks like a disaster and then a comeback!  

“First half wasn’t at the intensity that we wanted to, second half was far better, and our stats reflected that – but the bottom line is putting the ball in the back of the net, and they did it more times than us!”