Defender Andy Smith will be looking to help Gillingham to continue their unbeaten run to start the season this weekend when his fellow Yorkshiremen from Harrogate Town come to Kent for a League game that promises to be played in front of a packed MEMS Priestfield. 

The Club has opened the much-maligned Brian Moore Stand for Gills fans and in days it was sold out meaning for the first time since Smith arrived in March, Priestfield will be packed from all four sides come 3pm Saturday afternoon. 

“We all cannot wait!” Smith said speaking to KSN this week. “It’s been a good week – we were all delighted to get the record; twenty-one unbeaten, it hasn’t been easy, it’s been tough at times, and we have had to pull together at times and in certain moments!  

“But it really does say a lot about the character of the group and the never-say-die-attitude that the Gaffer has brought in since he has come in, so yeah it has been a very good week!” 

“That said, there is enough experience in the dressing room to make sure that if anyone does get carried away, to make sure that they get brought straight back down to earth,” the young defender admitted.  

“It’s been a really enjoyable week; we are all fully focused on Harrogate now and what we can impose on them and the challenges that they might bring to us.” 

The win at Newport last weekend made it a new Club record of twenty-one League games without defeat. “It was nice to reward the fans that travelled with the picture with them at the end, I don’t know if it was planned but it’s all about all of the fans who come in week-in and week-out at Priestfield!  

“It’s just the whole energy around the Club at the minute, it’s a great place to be but we know that there will be tough times along the way, tough times coming, it will happen but as a team, as a squad and as a Club, we are trying to go into every game as positive as we can!” 

“I don’t think I really appreciated how much the unbeaten run meant to the fans and us breaking the Club record, I know this sounds cliche but as a group we didn’t pay too much attention to the run.  

“It sounds like I am saying the same thing over and over but the Gaffer has really got into us that as soon as a final whistle goes on a Saturday, we’re onto the next game already.  

“I think that you saw from the scenes at the end of the Newport game, how much it did mean to the fans and to have more than six hundred fans in South Wales on a cold day like it was, it was brilliant, and you saw what the hard work meant to the fans!” 

The Gills have only conceded six League goals in their nine games so far, and Smith admitted naturally that he was enjoying his football. 

“It’s great playing alongside Galey (Sam Gale), he is still learning in the game, as am I, but we try and help each other and complement each other’s games as best we can.  

“But it’s not just Sam, it’s the rest of the back four; Cat (Keeper Glenn Morris), the full team, the defensive record isn’t just down to the defenders or the midfielders, it is everybody, and we are all really proud of it. We are though only nine games into the season and there is a long way to go but we are enjoying the progress so far!” 

“Every game brings its own challenge”, Smith admitted as attention was switched to Saturday’s home game with Harrogate Town. “We are expecting certain things from them; they might throw a few things in that we are not expecting, but we will try to focus on what we can do and focus on how we have been playing and try to impose ourselves on them.”