Conor McManus is looking for a continued run in the Gillingham first team after replacing the injured Kadeem Harris in Gareth Ainsworth’s side, but the young Irishman knows he’ll have to work hard to keep his place.

Reflecting on last weekend’s 2-0 win over Tranmere Rovers at MEMS Priestfield, the youngster told us, “I think the result has been building for the last few weeks. It’s something that we have been working towards, and I think we all knew that it was going to click eventually, and the goals were going to come, and they did thanks to Ronan (Hale) and Logan (Dobbs).”

“Over the past few games to now score six and only concede one is what you want and lifts a lot of people. It wasn’t the perfect performance and there are some things that we know we have to improve on and keep building, but it is a really a solid start indeed.”

“We have had a belief in ourselves and what we have on the bench – we know that there are a few things that we need to iron out, the mood will go up and down during the season – it’s going to be a long season but it’s all good at the minute!”

“We know that the first win was always going to be important and after getting it, we’ll be hoping now to kick on a little bit, you don’t want something like that to be hanging around too much, but at the end of the day, a win is a win and a clean sheet is a clean sheet, so to get it out of the way we’re really, really happy!”

Turning his attention to this weekend, McManus said, “We know Bristol Rovers are going to be a physical side – they are up near the top and are going to be up their probably for most of the season. I think every game in this league is going to be a physical one and a real physical challenge for us all the time which we have done very well nullifying those threats in the last few games.

“So, I think it’s more of the same with minor tweaks; we have done a lot of work on the training ground this week and hopefully it will all come to fruition on the weekend!”

McManus has played predominantly for the Gills at left wing back and it’s a position that he’s happy to play as he explained, “I have kind of flip-flopped,” he told us.

“At Brentford, we played a lot of back five systems and so I am very used to playing left wing back or left centre back, but left wing back will always be my preferred position – I have played there a few times for the Irish under 21s as I understand that you can get the best of both worlds where you can get the license to get forward and enjoy and use all my strengths that is being able to get up and down the pitch which is what I really enjoy and long may it continue!

“It’s a curse and a blessing where you are always involved backward and forward, it really is all about getting the balance and you have to make sure that your timing is right and sometimes that means hanging back and not being to gamble as much as you would like as the freedom that I get in this role that means that I can do it to the best of my ability!”

Meanwhile, McManus has been called up to the Republic of Ireland Under 21 squad for their upcoming Euro 2027 qualifiers. 

Conor has previously played for the U21’s on six occasions, scoring twice, and will join up with his teammates next week.

The U21’s are in action three times between September 25th and October 6th, against Slovakia, Kazakhstan and England respectively.

He will return to MEMS Priestfield Stadium in lead up to the game against Rotherham on October 10th.