Gillingham travel to Fleetwood on Saturday – and boss Mark Bonner isn’t surprised by their hosts’ bright start to the season.
Only a late Notts County equaliser prevented Fleetwood from joining the Gills on two wins out of two in League 2 on Sunday, a game Bonner watched.
They’ve also beaten West Brom at home in the Carabao Cup and Bonner expects his team will be in for a tough game at Highbury.
“It will be a good game, a tough game,” said the Gills boss. “They’ve had a good start with the victory first day, and a superb result in the cup at home to West Brom.
“I went to the game on Sunday at Notts County where they were two-up and conceded a late penalty but it was a fair result on the balance of the play.
“They played well and have had a really good start. I know them from last season, I know a number of their players and I think they’ve signed well.
“They couldn’t quite survive in the league but they’ve signed some good players this summer. I think they’ve got some very good strong players in the side, excellent midfield players in the side and on the bench – players that attract interest from higher levels as well.
“I’m not surprised that the team has started quite well. They started their work for this season last year so in that sense as a team they are probably a little bit further ahead in that cycle than we are.”
Gillingham will be boosted by the return to training this week of Tim Dieng and Aaron Rowe. Bradley Dack has also completed a full week of training, although he won’t be considered for first-team duty just yet.
With George Lapslie and Oli Hawkins both impressing after coming on last weekend, it means Bonner has decisions to make on his starting XI.
“Tim and Aaron have both trained all week so they’ll be available,” said Bonner. “Bradley Dack and Ethan Coleman have trained all week which has been excellent.
“Elliott Nevitt was back on footballs today (Thursday), Josh Andrews has been out three days on the grass so we’re not far away from having a few of those boys.”
On team selection, Bonner added: “I’ll change the team regularly and quite often.
“One, it will be determined by training. Two, by performance and three, who we’re playing against and who we think it suits best, home or away. There’s always lots of decisions to make.
“I’m looking forward to getting a team on the pitch to get us in the game and then whatever the game does we’ve got to make sure we’re hell bent on coming back with a result.
“We’re going to try and win the game – we’ll have to be really good to do it. We have to make sure we start well with the players that are available and have good impact from the bench like we have done.”
Bonner was also quizzed on how he expects Fleetwood to play.
“It’s hard to judge too much,” he responded. “The way they’ve played in a couple of their games so far has probably been dependent on teams they’ve played against, Notts County away and West Brom at home probably forces the game to look a certain way.
“I don’t expect it to look completely like that. I don’t expect to play the game on our terms, I expect they will cause us lots of problems.
“We’ve got to find moments where we can get control and dominate the game, and make it look the game we want it to. The two ends of the pitch and how good you are in both boxes will be massive in the game, and I think it will be a challenging test for us.
“We’re going to have to be aggressive, defend really well against direct play, not get counter-attacked on that happened too often last week. We think there will be lessons from the game last week but we’ll also have to find a better level than we did in the first half.”
