Gillingham suffered a midweek setback but head coach Stephen Clemence is confident of getting their play-off chase back on the rails this Saturday.
A 2-0 loss at Wimbledon leaves the Gills with a big task to make the top seven this season – a target which for many was a minimum expectation after a season that started with so much promise.
The Gills now have it all to do after slipping from seventh to 10th on Tuesday. They have played more games than most of the teams around them and are handicapped by a poor goal difference which reflects the fact that they are still League 2’s lowest scorers.
It’s onwards and hopefully upwards, however, for positive-thinking Clemence and the Gills have a great chance of a win this Saturday against a Grimsby side fourth from bottom in the table.
Clemence said: “It has been a disappointing few games, there is no doubt about that.
“We just started building a bit of momentum and the bubble has burst a little bit again, but there are still a number of points to play for this season.
“There is a game at home on Saturday and three points to play for and I think we have a great chance in that game. That is what we have to do, we have to go and beat Grimsby.
“There is not one game since I have been here that I haven’t felt is a huge game, that is what it will be at the weekend. I am not going to call it a mini-league or this or that, it is just a big game and one we want to attack.
“We have to take care of what we’re doing, make sure our performances are right, which I thought it was at the start of the game [against Wimbledon].
“Things changed and went against us and we need things to go right for us on Saturday. If we bring our performances I am sure we’ll get a positive result.
“Stick with us, there are eight games to go, a lot of points to play for. We have dropped a couple of places but we aren’t far away points-wise.
“We have to take it one game at a time. We say that in defeat and in victory, it is very tight.
“We have shown we can win two or three games on the spin before and at some point between now and the end of the season we’re going to have to do that again. Let’s get started on Saturday.”
League 2 table
Clemence said straight after Tuesday’s defeat that he knew which players he was picking to face Grimsby.
There’s a doubt over left-back Max Clark after he limped off with an ankle injury picked up after committing a foul – one which he received a yellow card for.
Clemence substituted him straight afterwards.
The coach said: “Max doesn’t go down very often. I have known Max a long time and I knew he was hurt, he has got a whack in the ankle.
“He was hobbling about in the dressing room [afterwards] and he had been booked. Max wanted to stay on but he had been booked and we didn’t need any more red cards.”
Conor Masterson had already been sent off in the first half against Wimbledon for two bookable offences and will miss the game against the Mariners.
Gills’ goalkeeper coach Deren Ibrahim was also cautioned at the end of the game following comments he made to the officials.
