Manager Mark Bonner wants Gillingham to take this weekend’s match against Harrogate by the scruff of the neck.
Bonner’s 10th-placed Gills return to League 2 action after an 11-day break when Simon Weaver’s side visit Priestfield.
While Harrogate sit 18th, five points behind Gillingham, having played a league fixture more than them, they have only lost once inside 90 minutes during four games in November so far.
Gillingham have another fixture-free weekend next Saturday – before a short journey to Bromley on Wednesday, December 4 – but then head towards the key festive period.
Bonner, who will have Robbie McKenzie, George Lapslie, Aaron Rowe and Elliott Nevitt in contention to return from injury, said: “They’re in a similar sort of run as ourselves.
“They played Blackpool in a cup game, played very well, and they have had a couple of good results in cup competitions where they have certainly played well.
“Then, they had a brilliant result last week against Chesterfield. We know how good Chesterfield are.
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“While they’re probably dissatisfied with the position they have found themselves in and the run of form that they have had, games have been very close, quite low-scoring, and in recent games, the return of some of their more athletic players has given them a slightly different dimension.
“You can definitely expect a hard-running team that will create chances. They play with an intensity – and an edge – that makes them difficult opponents.
“At the same time as that, we need to make sure we dominate the game and take it by the scruff of the neck.
“We want to come out as the winning team because it’s really important for us to stack – wins, ideally – but, certainly, an unbeaten run together over the next period. We’re a third of the season in.
“From this game on, I think we play five in 28 days and five in 17 days so it gets really crazy. In this next period, we need to keep ticking away and stack some results together.
“By the time we get to the second game in January, we will be halfway and that’ll really shape out what the season is going to look like.
“So, the players need to recognise the importance of these games. We have to play with the personality of a good side and the quality of a tough side.
“I think the game will be really challenging. It looks like it’s going to be absolutely chucking it down with buckets of rain and 45mph winds, which will bring its own challenges.
“We have to make sure we stand up to all of them.”
Bonner felt his squad enjoyed the opportunity to recharge their batteries with a weekend off, an EFL Trophy shootout win against Stevenage last Tuesday following a 1-0 home win over frontrunners Port Vale on Saturday, November 9.
“Because we had the quick turnaround with the cup game, it sort of put that [Port Vale] game to bed quite quickly,” said the boss, who will celebrate his 39th birthday on the day of the Harrogate game. “I think everyone quite enjoyed the weekend off.
“Obviously if you can build some momentum around having a game quite quickly, then fine. The other side of the coin is we have had some good performances recently.
“Look at the Blackpool game, we were very strong – albeit that wasn’t how we wanted the result to go – but Swindon, we took a point from the game. We drew with Stevenage, as well, having beaten Port Vale.
“In that period of time, we feel like results have turned a little bit for us. We feel like performances have turned a little bit for us.
“Because we have had a couple of weeks where we’ve not had not so much, it probably feels like we have been better for longer than maybe we have been. That’s not a bad thing at all.
“It gives everyone an energy about them and it gives us a chance to, hopefully, be fresh, going into this weekend.”
The enforced break has provided a team that has plenty of summer signings and Bonner himself time to assess once again, having only been at the club for a matter of months.
“We do that, anyway,” said the Gills boss. “Every five games, we sort of review where we are and this break has come at actually quite a clean-cut point at the end of one of those periods.
“That’s a continual process, just assessing where we are. I think everybody understands that a lot of the players who are here were here previously.
“So in one sense, it’s not a new group and, in another sense, it’s because there’s quite a few new faces in there and a new staff and a new way of doing things. In a way, it’s very different.
“In a way on the other side of that, when you look at the number of players that haven’t played in games so far, I don’t even think we have seen the team that is going to emerge this season.
“But what we have seen is the team which has continually developed and changed, coped with a lot of challenges so far, and got through a big challenge last week by coming off the back of a bad run and bringing that to an end with a draw at Swindon, with a really good performance against Blackpool, with a big league win against Port Vale and an excellent performance and result against Stevenage.
“All of a sudden, you start to turn it – but you’re only really turning it if the next result is the right one.
“That’s the one we really have to focus on.”
Bonner watched weekend opponents Harrogate’s 2-1 home win over Chesterfield last Saturday – on television – but decided against taking in another team in person.
He said: “I could lie and tell you I did! We took the weekend off, everybody did.
“I watched the Harrogate versus Chesterfield game on Sky so I guess that counts. But I decided against a weekend on the road, going up there. I think it’s really nice.
“I think everybody enjoyed those couple of days and, in fairness to the boys, the back-end of the week after Stevenage, they worked brilliantly. Then Monday and Tuesday this week, they have worked brilliantly in training.
“Now these couple of days, we’re smoothing off a little bit into the game. But I think everybody enjoyed a couple of days off.
“There are times in the season where maybe you get a Sunday-Monday and you get a double day [off] – but there’s something about having a Saturday. Everybody else is off, as well so you can just catch-up with people, which is nice.
“A lot of us who live away from home were able to go home and see people that perhaps we haven’t seen. That was really enjoyable.
“It gives you a bit of time to plan and be prepared for when we come back in. I think we used that week well and it has served us well, certainly in your head, just to have a little space and time.
“Now, we need to make sure it serves us well in the games ahead.”
Gillingham’s loyal supporters will again be crucial in the forthcoming weeks, their home games sandwiched between mainly fairly short away journeys.
“That period we have got is a lot of games in a short period of time – although we don’t have to go far for many of them, which is good,” said Bonner. “The fixtures are designed with that in mind.
“But, with so few southern clubs, that could easily have gone against us. We go to Bromley, we go to Milton Keynes, we go to Wimbledon, we go to Colchester, and we go to Chesterfield so, overall, it’s not too bad, compared to how it could have been.
“We have a number of games here, as well, and it’s a really good run.
“The pace of the season really picks up around Christmas and we need to make sure that we’re right in the race.”
