After their terrific start to the season, Gillingham go in search of their first league win in three games as Cheltenham Town come to MEMS Priestfield. 

Not for the first time in recent seasons, the Gills have started like a train, but some are already concerned that like those seasons, the faithful are going to see their side disappointingly fall away again this year. 

But those who are getting nervous should not fear as there is no panic behind the scenes and indeed assistant boss Richard Dobson has been pleased with most of what he has seen since the Harrogate defeat at home base two weekends ago. 

“After having such a good start, I was always interested to see what we would be like after a defeat,” Dobson confessed, “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 want 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!” 

But Dobson does understand why some Gills fans are showing the first signs of anxiety as he explained. “I can understand why some people have looked at our last three games and are saying her we go again! But if you think about it, it will manifest, and we have to push that right out of our mindset!  

“We can look at it two ways, two defeats; doom and gloom or we can go we are fourth in the table, in really good shape and that’s the truth of it all! At the end of the day, it’s the scoreline at the end of the game that means the result and if you are three-nil up at half time, it doesn’t mean that the game is won! 

“And it’s the same here, you’re looking at a two-week sample period – a game that we could have easily have won against Harrogate, we were unfortunate to come off with a defeat in that game, and a tough game last weekend away at MK Dons who are League Two favourites. But if we look at the whole picture, we probably haven’t played as well in some of the wins earlier in the season but found a way to get a result!” 

“We have to do that again – back to basics a little bit and go back to doing what served us so well at the start of the season. I do understand why people may feel like that, but we have to try and block that out and have everyone look at the positive side of things of which there are many!”