Gillingham boss Gareth Ainsworth is excited to get the new season under way but is urging perspective ahead of Saturday’s trip to Accrington.
While recognising the buzz around opening day, Ainsworth is keen to stress that the campaign is a marathon, not a sprint.
“This game doesn’t define your season,” he said, ahead of their League 2 opener.
“To get off to a good start would be great but it’s not everything.
“It’ll be a great barometer for everybody, every club. Believe me, this game doesn’t sort your season out, without a doubt.
“It can sometimes give kicks up the backside or sometimes let you know that you’ve done the right things, or whatever it is.
“It’s not the be-all and end-all. That’s the opening game. Do not go crazy on this one. Process, process.
“I know this club went off to a flyer last season and ended 17th in the league. I don’t think anyone would have seen that coming after the first few games.
Gillingham beat Carlisle United 4-1 on the opening day of last season and remained unbeaten until the start of October, when it all started to go wrong.
The Gills won an opening-day fixture at Accrington in 2018 and have lost their first game of the season only twice in the last 10 years.
A decade ago they got off to a great start, beating promotion-favourites Sheffield United 4-0. Bradley Dack was among the goals that day.
Ainsworth’s experienced enough to know the first day can bring surprises—and doesn’t want Gills to be among them.
He said: “There will be some big upsets on the opening day, and we don’t want to be one of those. I’ve been on the end of that and that’s not nice.
“It is a barometer of where you are right now but it’s not a be-all and end-all game of the season.”
He added: “The opening game has a big build up to it and that’s the problem with the opening game. You can forget there is Walsall, Tranmere, Wimbledon straight after really quickly and then people start forgetting about that opening game.
“I don’t want the boys to have this big build up to it and it’s this big moment.”
While fans eagerly await the return of competitive action, Ainsworth is looking at the bigger picture—and the opportunity to assess his squad.
He said: “Although everyone’s missed competitive club football on the TV and the highlights and everything. For me, it’s to see some of the characteristics that I bring to a football club. That’s what the opening game is for me.
“I’ll be able to check and read my players and see who’s buying in, who’s understood what we’ve tried to do in pre-season. Opening game and last game should be the same. They should be. Empty the tank, you give absolutely everything. There’s no disappointment. Your team is the most important thing to you.
“I don’t want the players to go, ‘Oh, this is the opening game, I must do this or that’. It’s no different.
“’Carry on where you finished last season, boys, because you were sensational’.
“We’ve added to the group, which I think has made it stronger. It’s brilliant that football’s back. That’s what the opening game is. It also means the next Saturday off is May next year, which is something you take in football. But it’s a brilliant, brilliant ten months. It really is and I can’t wait to get stuck in.”
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Ainsworth hasn’t made drastic changes to the squad this summer, with just four additions, which includes last season’s loan defender Andy Smith.
With a squad mixed with youth and experience, the Gills boss is embracing competition for places.
He said: “Everyone goes on that first pick team, that starting 11. ‘Am I in the manager’s plans? Am I out of the manager’s plans?’
“I don’t care who you are at Gillingham Football Club. If you’re at this football club right now, you have a chance of playing for me without a shadow of a doubt. I wouldn’t have people here who didn’t have a chance of playing and that’s really important.
“So there’s no, ‘I fancy this one more than this one’. I’ve got some real selection headaches, which is just how I want it.”
In a message to his players, he added: “Don’t put too much on this opening game and selection process.
“Just go out there and give your all and you might win one of these games that we need to finish high in the league.
“We want to just change this club and change where we’ve been for the last three or four seasons. I want the fans to see it. I want the owners to see it. I want the lads to feel that we are building something. That’s the big thing this year.”
