Garath McCleary’s second goal of the season sealed Gillingham’s first win in seven games on Easter Monday and it’s been a lift for everyone at the club as they prepare for the long trip to Salford City.

McCleary told us at this week’s briefing, “Monday’s result was needed! We played well enough against Walsall on Good Friday, and I thought we were unfortunate possibly not to have won it at the end!”

“We took that into Monday, and I was delighted to score. The weight on the pass from Ronan (Hale) was basically a message telling me to hit it and bend round the centre half. I could see when I hit it that the ball was bending in if the keeper didn’t pull off a very, very good save. I’m not quite sure about the celebrations mind but we won the game and that’s all that matters!”

The Gills travel North this weekend knowing that their hosts are right in the mix challenging for the post-season and for promotion!

“We know it’s going to be another tough game as they have so much still to play for… But we needed the win on Monday after we built on the performance at Walsall. The past few months haven’t been the greatest and so hopefully we can keep it going Saturday, Home wins have been rare as well which makes the support we get amazing – the Gaffer is a really positive person and tries to instil positivity into all of us and with the experience that we have got in the dressing room that’s something else that we need to draw on.

There’s a number of us senior players in the dressing room and it is down to us to help the younger players through periods like this.”

“Every game in League Two is tough as they have had some good results in the past few weeks, so, they will like possession and have some very good players – some of whom I know – but every game is tough and we have to keep going. It’s important for us to finish the season well as the last few months as I said haven’t been great!”

“I do actually enjoy it when younger players come to me asking advice,” McCleary admitted. “I want to help as much as I can – it’s certainly something that I will look at after football – some sort of mentoring after football, giving back to someone to learn from my experiences along the way. If I see anything that I think people can do better, I will say something and hopefully they can listen and take the advice on board.

“It’s so much easier now to get and even ask for the advice from when I was their age – when I first moved from Non-League to Nottingham Forest as a young player, there simply wasn’t the support structure or the networks that you have today. After some games recently, Lenni (Cirino) has asked me to look at some of his clips – I am delighted to do so and hopefully help. Times have changed and how we can help has too!”