Gillingham are likely to find weekend opponents Tranmere Rovers a tough nut to crack.
Boss Mark Bonner ended last weekend’s match at Doncaster calling on his team to get more creative in the attacking third and they’ll need to be at their best this Saturday.
Tranmere have only conceded once in their four league games and one of their two goalless draws came against a Notts County team who don’t usually have problems scoring.
Bonner knows he’s up against a team who – with experienced manager Nigel Adkins at the helm – make it hard for teams to create chances against them.
He said: “If there are periods in the game where we have the ball, we have to be patient and have the right quality. Try and finish our attacks well, but not get counter-attacked on. There’s a fine balance and a sweet spot between all of those.
“They’ve started well. A very hard-working team. We’ll have to match their running and their aggression. We’ll have to match their endeavour to defend the goal.
“We’ll have to be patient in our play as well as quick and clever in the right moments. It’s finding the balance in the game.
“Clearly, we have to be a really hard team to create a chance against ourselves in order to be in as much control of the game as we want.
“We want to be the dominant team. We want to be the team here that teams fear coming to, really. But that’s down to us to go about the game in a really aggressive manner and try to get on top of it.
“When we get to the top end of the pitch, we’ve got to be brave and confident to finish attacks. We’ve got to bring quality and good decisions to the moments that come our way. We have to be clinical when the moments come.
“We have to sustain attacks and be aggressive to keep the game in the top end of the pitch as long as we can in certain situations.
“Being overly patient probably means that you’re not creating much action in their box and we need more action in and around their penalty area. That’s what we’ve got to try and bring at the weekend.”
While Tranmere haven’t lost in four, and are hard to score against, they haven’t scored many themselves either. All three of their goals have come from Omari Patrick – a summer signing from Sutton United.
He scored both in their 2-1 win over Carlisle last time out for Rovers – his second a well-hit effort from the edge of the box.
“His stats speak for themselves,” said the Gills boss.
“They’ve obviously got other good players that can cause you a problem, but he’s had a really good start to the season.
“A bit like Molyneux last week, who had raced off the charts with Doncaster. Their statistics straight away just tell you they’re a player that needs watching and he’s looking after.
“We know his qualities. He’s played in the league for a while now. So, we’re aware of him and we have to defend well against him. But it will be an everybody thing because usually he’s scoring a goal off of someone else’s good play in the build-up as well.”
League 2 table top-half ahead of the weekend
Gillingham will be looking to bounce back from their first defeat of the season in the league when they went down 1-0 at Doncaster last weekend.
Bonner said: “Really, from our side, we’re just really excited to be back (at Priestfield).
“We’re looking forward to playing in front of another good crowd on what will be a fairly nice day, I think, and trying to continue the good start that we’ve made.
“The players love playing (at home) and our record has been good. We want to really fight to maintain that.”
