Gillingham’s weekend opponents have three regular starters missing on international duty but home boss John Coleman doubts it will make a difference.
League 2 leaders Walsall will be without England under-21 goalkeeper Tommy Simkin and a couple of mainstay defenders in Liam Gordon (Guyana) and David Okagbue (Ireland u21s).
They’re also without on-loan Manchester United striker Ethan Wheatley. He scored against Wales on Wednesday night. Two other players are with Ireland’s under-21s but wouldn’t have featured anyway.
Walsall will be without suspended left wing-back Connor Barrett for the trip but Coleman’s likened the absentees to having a flurry of injuries – a common drawback for all clubs.
He said: “I’ve been in a situation plenty of times where I’ve been ravaged with injuries and we’ve turned in one of the best performances of the season with players who haven’t played for months.
“Football is full of surprises, it throws up many unpredictable things. I don’t think them having players on international duty will make any difference.
“They’ve had a remarkable season, got themselves a healthy lead, it’s been narrowed down but they’re still top of the league, still in pole position that everyone would want to change places with.
“We know it’s going to be a tough game. I know they’ve got players missing through international duty but they’ve still got a good squad.
“I watched them last week against Bromley and they were disappointed that they couldn’t get all three points for that.
“We know what threats they’ll pose and they’ll know about us anyway because we played them not so long back.
“We’ve just got to try and play to the best of our ability, keep up the standards that we’ve set ourselves as regards to effort, work-rate, passion and then we’ve really, really got to increase our quality on the ball and our attacking prowess.”
Walsall haven’t played since a 2-2 draw at Bromley last Thursday.
They could have postponed the weekend game with so many call-ups but that would have only meant causing themselves fixture congestion further down the line. A midweek trip to Priestfield wouldn’t have been appealing.
Walsall confirmed on Sunday that they wouldn’t be seeking a postpoement.
Coleman said: “I’m not too sure what the protocol is or what the rule is. I don’t know whether they did choose to play or they’ve been forced to play. That’s immaterial to me.
“I can’t govern what happens. All I can do is put out a team. Whatever team they put out isn’t my concern. It’s what we put out and then how they perform for our fans out there.”
The Gills drew their game at Walsall just over a month ago. It was a fixture that came days after their 3-0 loss at Barrow – a performance that led Coleman switching to a new system and going with different personnel.
Since then the Gills have picked up performance levels.
Coleman said: “We’ve got to start winning games consistently to enhance the feel-good factor. That’s easier said than done.
“We’re doing the first step right which is giving everything we’ve got, leaving no stone unturned and working really hard.
“We’ve got to make that next step which is quality, quantity of chances and quantity of chances taken.”
