Finishing Tuesday’s opening pre-season match without any more injuries was a big deal for Gillingham manager Gareth Ainsworth.
The Gills went into the game at Dover with plenty of senior players missing – most left out as a precaution – but Ainsworth didn’t want any more knocks to worry about.
Gillingham beat Dover 1-0 thanks to Robbie McKenzie’s strike late in the first half.
“Getting no injuries was a big thing for me,” said the Gills boss following the game at Crabble.
“There’s way too many missing already, with a couple of precautions. It’s great to get through it with nothing major.
“First game is always an interesting one. Your training looks good and so do the fitness levels. Then you think, ‘right, exactly where are we?’ Let’s pitch ourselves against somebody.
“Dover are a decent side. They’ve had a good season, a promotion season last year, and some good history. One or two big lads, physical lads, quick lads. Quite direct, so it’s going to test us for some of the teams in our league.
“Really pleased with the outcome. Two elevens, some youngsters and I’m really excited by some of the young boys here. There’s some good players coming through.
“Joe Gbode and Sam Gale are a testament of that and we had the likes of Cruz (Beszant) and Damien Theodore, who we signed (last season) from a non-league side. I think there’s some good futures ahead of them.
“Some of the experienced pros really showed that they wanted to win. They want to put their challenge forward, getting in that team on the first week of August.
“It was the first one of six. We’re looking forward to Reading on Saturday, obviously. The big thing was get everyone 45 minutes, blow on, no injuries.
“The win is nice. It’s not the main thing in pre-season, but it’s nice to go for a winning start and a great finish from Robbie McKenzie.”
Ainsworth used those young players to help plug the gaps with seven senior players missing. Facing non-league Dover was also a good time to get a look at what’s on the verge of the senior side.
Senior pros Sam Vokes, Jonny Williams, Euan Williams, Elliott Nevitt, Andy Smith, Nelson Khumbeni and Aaron Rowe were all out.
Commenting on those missing, Ainsworth said: “Euan Williams went down with a nasty whack in one of the first couple of days, and that’s unfortunate. An upper body injury for him.
“Sam Vokes broke his arm (at the end of last season). We signed him knowing that he wouldn’t be able to feature. He’ll probably miss the first couple of games because he’s going to be behind. He’s not been able to run or anything.
“He had quite a nasty fracture and a plate put in there. But I know what a fit Sam Vokes gives you. That’s why I brought him here.
“Aaron Rowe, Jonny Williams, Nelson Khumbeni, they’re all sort of just precautions, really. We don’t want to risk them.
“We’ve got a great medical team and I just want them to feel like they can take their time.
“We haven’t got a massive squad, but we’ve got two or three names there that you’d think would be part of this first-team make-up as well.
“We’re not seeing the true picture yet, but I’m sure when that first game comes, we’ll be strong enough to go and compete with Accrington, and then we’re going to use them all during the season, without a doubt.”
