Gillingham boss Gareth Ainsworth is treating the final few games as a “free hit” for him as he looks to see which players he wants to keep with him next season.
The Gills, with five games left, moved onto 47 points after Tuesday’s night 1-1 draw at Chesterfield – a sixth straight stalemate for the team, with four of those coming since Ainsworth took charge.
With their League 2 status all-but-assured, Ainsworth is using the final fixtures to experiment. They host MK Dons on Saturday, a team who, like themselves, have underperformed this season.
Ainsworth said: “I’ve got some real good decisions to make now for the squad going forward. I want to have a good look at the squad now.
“I’m sure we’re pretty safe. That’s one thing ticked off. The second thing was to be hard to beat. Emptying the tank and that togetherness.
“I’m really pleased, and I said to the boys [after Tuesday’s game], ‘I can work with this. I can definitely work with this group because of what you’ve shown me over the last four games’.
“This is a brilliant position to have a look at my squad, in the last five games and go, ‘right, what do I want to do? What do I need?’.
“I think it’s a brilliant move from the Galinsons, getting me in [at the end of the season]. It was a wrench leaving Shrewsbury. We all know that and we talk about that. But getting me out of my contract there, that was a fair deal done.
“I’m really pleased to have a look at the club, and next season I want to start this build and this journey that we talk about, and in two years’ time, I’m telling you now, we won’t be sat 19th in the table. We will be in a different position.
“I know what I can do, but I don’t want to overpromise anything. I just want to get this club sorted, get it moving in the right direction.
“It’s been a tough few years for Gillingham. I feel for them, but I’m on it now with them. I want to be the man who gets some success here.”
On Tuesday, Ainsworth handed winger Aaron Rowe his first start since Boxing Day and brought Jack Nolan on as a substitute, a first appearance in nine games for him.
Shad Ogie has been getting games again in defence while he’s recently brought Jonny Williams back in to start games. Robbie McKenzie was given a breather in the week to allow him to play Rowe.
Jayden Clarke was left out to make way for others, and Ainsworth admits it’s tricky with a big squad, but he’s having a look at what he’s got.
Read more: ‘They are absolutely giving everything’
“I’m real pleased to see a few,” he said. “It’s going to be a tough decision at times, who you can play and who you can’t because they’re all good players.
“I’ve got to slim this squad down. I’ve got to make it more [an] identity of me and Dobbo (assistant boss Richard Dobson) and we’ll get there.
“It’s great to have this free hit at the end of the season now, to have a look at them all. Even Jimmy-Jay Morgan, I feel for him because he’s a good player. I’m trying to get him some minutes.
“It was Asher [Agbinone] on Saturday [coming off the bench after two months out injured] and it’s difficult to try and balance everything and get results. But we’re doing a decent job.”
Ainsworth will be keen to end the run of draws and secure his first win, but said: “It’s not an absolute necessity because I know what I’m doing this season. I’m experimenting a little bit.
“It’s always nice to win as a manager. A win and a loss is better than two draws, isn’t it? But when you look at the away trips we’ve had and that Colchester [home] game, that we should have won. That would have been a fantastic start.
“As it happens, it’s four draws and we’ll take it. We’re difficult to beat and that’s nice to know.
“We’ve got a great defence. We haven’t conceded a lot this season. Not just with me, the ones before me. If we can just start scoring goals, and we’re looking dangerous at times, that’s really encouraging.
“There’s a long way to go. It’s going to be a tough old project but I can’t wait to get my teeth into it.”
