Gillingham manager Mark Bonner says there’ll be changes in every game – even if we don’t realise it.
The Gills are on the road in League 2 for the first time this season with the 290-mile trip to Morecambe this Saturday.
Bonner admits much will change away from home but the fundamentals remain the same for his players.
“Loads changes just in terms of the logistics of it and how you prepare going into the game, just through time really, particularly when we’ve had an away game on Tuesday,” said Bonner.
“But in terms of how we want to play, I think you’ll probably see a difference in every game, slightly.
“They might not even be that noticeable sometimes as they might be small things but the opposition always is something we have to respect and take into consideration when we pick our team or the way in which we go about playing with the ball, hurting them, defending their threats, as that’s the nature of the game.
“What I’d like to hope is that the principle of our team is always the same, try to outscore the opposition and chase wins, and we want to be that team home and away because it’s wins that get you successful seasons.
“We’ll try and be really positive to chase the game, to start as well as we did last week, to try to score first, but be responsive and positive if it doesn’t go our way to try and put ourselves in a winning position. That’s the team we want to be, whether we’re here or on the road.”
Gillingham are likely to be without Conor Masterson and Tim Dieng with Aaron Rowe also a doubt. Already ruled out are Ethan Coleman, Elliott Nevitt and Josh Andrews while Euan Williams starts a three-match ban after his red card in the Carabao Cup defeat at Swansea.
Remeao Hutton is back in contention, however, after missing out in midweek due to illness.
“We’ll probably be a few missing,” conceded Bonner. “Conor has been struggling with his Achilles, a bit of tendonitis there so he’s not done so much, we’re unsure on him.
“Tim Dieng was out running (on Thursday morning) but we’re unsure whether it will be too early for him with his hamstring, we certainly don’t want to take big risks this early in the season.
“Aaron Rowe felt his hamstring a bit tight after his 45 minutes on Tuesday and the longer journeys make that (recovery) difficult so we’ll decide whether or not we use him.
“We’re not far away from having a real big set of players to choose from. But what we don’t want to do is force people through in this period and then count the cost of that for a long time afterwards.”
Gills have been busy looking at videos of Morecambe’s start to the season which saw them lose 1-0 at Walsall in the league before a 3-0 midweek cup loss at League 1 Huddersfield.
However, Bonner conceded there will be an educated guess in some aspects of what they’ll be up against.
“We’re in the stage of the season where you can watch some pre-season games which you can read too much into, and then we’ve had a league game and cup game where they’ve played different systems, teams from a different level, so educating guessing I’d say at the moment with teams,” noted the Gills boss.
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“We’re probably three or four weeks away from seeing a real pattern in the way teams play. We’ve got a basic understanding of what they might be and how they might play.
“They were really competitive in the game against Walsall, had more of the ball, lost narrowly and had some good chances in the game. A new team, lots of players put together so they’re in that phase of learning.
“It’s their first home game so we all know the bounce that they can bring and the atmosphere in the stadium so we’re expecting a really tough game at the end of a long week but also expect us to find a level that really gives them a good game.
“We want to come back with three points, we want to go back-to-back, we want to win our first away game, all those things. We’ve got to want it enough first and then find all the ways to get it.”
