Tuesday night’s EFL Trophy defeat gave manager Mark Bonner plenty to get excited about.
The result – a 2-1 loss to Peterborough – wasn’t the main focus as Gillingham fielded a number of players for the first time this season, including summer signing Bradley Dack.
Ethan Coleman played for the first time since last season while another new recruit, Elliott Nevitt, scored after a month out injured and there were some bright performances elsewhere.
Bonner said: “I really liked what we were – it showed bags of potential in what’s possible for us against a brilliant team, by the way, holders of the competition, so many athletic players, and then they’re bringing on some very good League 1 players.
“I really enjoyed watching us. I like the potential in the team, because I know that there’s lots more to come and as players, some of those will get fitter.
“What I like is we’re trying to build something. We’re trying to develop as a team. We’re trying to test ourselves against very good opponents and the group has given us Peterborough and Stevenage, great tests for us to see where we are.
“We’ve seen a glimmer of the potential so I’m excited.”
Gillingham, who sit top of League 2, head to Doncaster Rovers this Saturday.
Bonner will have to see if the likes of Coleman, Dack and Nevitt will be fit enough to feature again after their midweek exploits.
He’ll be without suspended captain Max Ehmer while Euan Williams is on international duty. Injured players Jake Turner, Conor Masterson, Tim Dieng and Oli Hawkins will also miss out.
Remeao Hutton, Robbie McKenzie and Aaron Rowe should return while loan striker Jacob Wakeling will be free to play after being unavailable to feature against his parent club in midweek.
It’s been a juggling act in the opening month for Bonner, who is beginning to get more players to choose from.
He said: “Last week (a 1-0 win over Chesterfield) was very good. Just because you played 45 minutes (against Peterborough) doesn’t mean you’re ready to start a league game. I think it’s just the next step towards those things.
“There’s plenty to think about because there’s lots of players that are, for different reasons, available, unavailable, whatever, going into the weekend. We’ve got time to plan something.
“What will end up happening is we’ll end up having good choices and good depth. And just when you think you’ve got it in one position, the problems come somewhere else.
“I guess that’s the story of management and the season. But quite often it’s as big a problem as you want to make it and half of the mentality is just like, ‘right, whatever gets thrown our way, be the best team at dealing with that’ because if you can keep finding solutions, then that’ll serve you well and there’ll be plenty of them in the next eight months.”
On the returning Nevitt, Bonner said: “He’s been desperate. He is desperate. We’re holding him back a bit.
“It’s been a long couple of weeks for him, doing all the sessions he doesn’t like doing, trying to get ready.
“But if we’ve got to trade him for six games to get him for 40, then so be it.”
