There will be a familiar face in charge of Gillingham’s opponents Cheltenham Town on Friday night.
Former Gills captain Michael Flynn – who made over 100 appearances playing for the club between 2005 and 2007 – took over as manager of Cheltenham ahead of the current campaign.
Flynn has managed several teams in the lower reaches of the EFL, with a long spell at Newport County between 2017 and 2021. He later moved to Walsall and then Swindon before returning to management in May, tasked with a rebuild job following the Robins’ relegation from League 1.
It’s been a rocky start this term but Cheltenham head to Priestfield four unbeaten in the league.
Along with Gills’ fans, their manager Mark Bonner is no stranger to his counterpart either.
He said: “You end up doing quite a few courses with different people. I’ve done quite a few courses with Flynny over the years and we’re doing one at the moment actually.
“I’ve seen him a lot of him on Zoom recently but it will be nice to see him properly [tonight].
“Cheltenham are playing well at the moment, I think they’re in a good run of points scoring in the league and some good cup results as well.
“I watched their game against Cambridge a couple of weeks ago (in the EFL Trophy). They had a good win against Morecambe last week and they’re on a fairly good run of results and form.
“They’ve climbed the table after a start of the season which was probably likely, having had as much change in terms of players, manager, the whole structure and everything changed there in the summer.
“It took a little bit of time for them to get going but they’re in a nice rhythm at the moment.
“I think the front four are really, really creative for them and have got a lot of threats at the top end of the pitch. We’ll have to be ready for a really energetic, aggressive team and a hard-running team that can cause you big problems in your own half.”
For the Gills, they’re finding some good form too, with wins in their last two matches – something Bonner’s hoping to build on over the Christmas period.
He said: “It’s about us continuing the good work that we’ve found and we’ve got a little edge and a bit of a bounce about us off the back of the last couple of results. I think the key is that we try and consolidate that level.
“We’ll need to be good to win the game, we know how hard we’ve found some of the games here [at Priestfield] this season and we’ll certainly need to be at the top of our game to continue with the (recent) results that we’ve had.”
