Gillingham defender Max Ehmer is fast approaching a huge milestone but he’ll be hoping the club have something to celebrate if he gets there.
Ehmer made his 390th appearance for the Gills at Barrow on Tuesday night and with 10 games of the regular season left there’s a good chance the matchday captain can make it to the magic 400. By then the Gills will hope to have at least reached the play-offs.
He said: “I look only one game at a time, if I get to 400 this season that obviously means I am doing something right to be playing every game until the end, but within that time I also want to get results.
“I don’t want to just dilly dally through games, when I get to 400 I want it to mean something, come the 400th game that we’re promoted, or in the play-offs, whatever it is.
“It is about making sure each game that I play I am doing something right, getting the results and then 400 will take care of itself.”
Ehmer, 32, first joined the Gills a decade ago but the promotion battles have been few and far between. Not since the Justin Edinburgh era has the defender been involved in a squad with a serious chance of success.
“It is exciting,” he said. “I couldn’t tell you the last time we were in for promotion, maybe under Justin, that long ago.
“We have some good games coming up, games we feel are winnable, we have to take confidence into those games.
“It is a different kind of excitement now, it is good and we know the squad we have got is more than capable of getting into the play-offs but it is about doing the things to make sure we get in there rather than wishing on other results.
“We sat down a couple of months ago with the gaffer and the staff and there were stats we needed to hit, we are coming along nicely in them but still have work to do so we won’t stop until the last game of the season is over and where that takes us, we don’t know yet but we’ll aim as high as we can.
“With the signings we made and the players we have got, I think we expect it and we know where we want to be in the league, it’s a good pressure, we have to go and deliver, it is all good expect everyone us to win but you have to actually go out and do it.
“I wouldn’t say we are in a false position but I would say we as a squad are slightly under-achieving, but we were hitting a good bit of form before Barrow (on Tuesday) and so if we can carry on the form between now and the end of the seaosn it is the best time to hit a bit of form.
“We know we have boys who have played at higher levels, there is experience and youth, we have a mixture of everything but it is a great squad.”
Fans will be expecting a win on Saturday against a Tranmere side sitting nearer the bottom than the top and with three straight defeats away from home.
That’s the kind of expectation that comes with the territory of a team chasing places at the top end.
Ehmer said: “That is the expectation we have created among ourselves with the squad we have got but also among the fans, it is making sure we deliver, anyone can beat anyone but we’re going into the game with confidence knowing we could win.”
The Gills could need five or six more wins to make the play-offs from the last 10 but Ehmer isn’t looking any further than Saturday’s game at Priestfield.
“We’re only concentrating on ourselves,” he said. “There is no point looking out for other results, we go into our game looking to win and if we win all of them we will certainly be in there or higher, we just take it one game at a time. We don’t look past the next game and the next game is Tranmere.”
