Gillingham assistant boss David Kerslake has this week spoken of first the frustration at the way Oldham Athletic took all three points from Priestfield seven days ago before then focusing on Saturday’s trip down the M4 to face Bristol Rovers.
Kerslake told us, “the manager called all the players in on Sunday after the Oldham game last Saturday and we had a chat about the game and how everyone feels. We’re not in a great run of form at the minute and so just to change things round we brought the boys in to clear the air and draw a line under it and go from there. We were in on Monday and have trained well all week and hopefully we’ll go again in Bristol this weekend. All the staff have been through this before and almost certainly will again. So its sheer hard work that will get us there and we’ll have a game plan to take into Saturday which hopefully will see us get the result that we all want – we know that we’re all in this together.”
“Other clubs feel that we’re a different proposition here at Priestfield than we were last year. They come here expecting a seriously hard game and sit behind the ball to catch us on the break. I think that that is the big difference in a year – take the Sheffield United game, we’re all desperately disappointed to have come off not beating them, and their reaction that day highlighted I think just how much of a “scalp” we’ve become here! As a player myself, I always loved playing in front of our own fans and you understand how disappointed they are when you lose a game like last Saturday. Whilst they’re making themselves heard, I can assure them that in the changing room people are making themselves heard too and I completely understand their frustration as we all do!”
The Gills haven’t had a midweek game this week for the first time in a number of weeks – a good thing after the Oldham defeat? “There’s two ways to look at it,” Kerslake admitted. “When you get beaten you’re desperate for the game to come around again on the Tuesday to put things right. On the other side it’s a way of slowing things down, getting back on the training field to make it right. We hope that the week that we’ve had will put us in the right frame of mind – I’m pretty sure that the players will be busting a gut to get out there on Saturday..”
“I’ll accept that there’s a little bit of added pressure on us at home as we were so good last year and the fans expect – and rightly so – for the players to put on a good performance and get the win.”
Looking ahead to the weekend’s trip to Bristol, the Gills number two said, “Rovers have won back to back promotions and have the winning mentality and are used to winning and have an extremely good team spirit which we of course will have to match. And we believe that if we match anybody we can beat them…
The Memorial Ground has always been a hard place to go – not sure of the condition of the pitch but I’ve played there knee deep in mud – but those were the days when Bristol Rugby Club owned the ground. It’ll be a tough place to go undoubtedly and we’re in for an exceptionally hard game.”
Kerslake then reflected on the current League One table comparing this season to last. He said “most people thought Wigan would run away with the League and after a slow start they did. I don’t think there’s a Wigan in the League this year – there’s a lot of similar team’s and it will be tight all season. You don’t win things this time of year – just look at last year; we’re fully aware that we were flying with fourteen or fifteen games to go and we fell out of the Play Offs. Who would have thought at one point that that would have happened? You’re hanging out and you prepare and hope to win every single game – you want to put a good performance in. That isn’t going to be the case; you hang in there knowing that at some point we’ll put a good run in and climb up the League hopefully starting Saturday!”