Gillingham are back in League Two action as they welcome MK Dons to the MEMS Priestfield stadium on Tuesday evening.

Gillingham’s play off hopes were severely dented by a late equaliser at home to Fleetwood on Saturday, but they will be hoping for a win against league high-flyers MK Dons.

Last Saturday’s draw was a very attritional game. Gillingham spent most of the game focusing on defence and opened the scoring against the run of play in the second half with Seb Palmer-Houlden’s first goal at Priestfield.

However, despite some resilient defending, Fleetwood equalised in the 91^st minute with Shaun Rooney’s header, which meant the Kent side had to settle for a 1-1 draw.

Gillingham currently sit 16^th in the table on 44 points, 11 points away from the play off places, while the visitors, MK Dons, are currently second in the table, five points behind league leaders Bromley, but with a game in hand.

The Dons have had a strong season in League Two. After some difficult form in September, which left them solidly mid-table, they have put together an impressive run of results. Their win tally of 18 games is the second highest in the league, and they haven’t lost a game since 1^st January.

On Saturday, they had a brief scare when they went 1-0 down at home to Harrogate in the 25^th minute. However, goals from Rushian Hepburn-Murphy, Luke Offord, Aaron Collins and Ben Miles saw the Buckinghamshire side secure a comfortable 4-1 victory to keep the club in the automatic promotion spots.

Gillingham and MK Dons have played each other on 23 occasions, with Gillingham winning eleven and MK Dons ten. In the reverse fixture earlier in the season, MK Dons were 3-0 up after 69 minutes. However, Gillingham came back to make it 3-2 with goals from Palmer-Houlden and Jonny Williams. Williams’ goal was in the 94^th minute, so the Kent side ran out of time to find an equaliser.

There are no new injuries from Saturday’s game against Fleetwood, but questions remain over the fitness of Bradley Dack, Armani Little, Omar Beckles and Cameron Antwi, all of whom were missing from the matchday squad.

With the play off places now an unlikely dream, Ainsworth’s focus must surely be on producing some strong home performances to get the Kent faithful firmly on side as the season meanders to a close.

But then again, a convincing victory against one of the strongest teams in the league could give some real hope of challenging for the coveted places to the long-suffering fans.

Ainsworth needs to put on a show on Tuesday night to keep the fans happy with the two-year plan.

Picture supplied by Gillingham Football Club.