Gillingham boss Gareth Ainsworth saluted his players after they equalled the club’s longest unbeaten run.
A 1-0 victory over Notts County on Saturday made it 20 unbeaten for the Gills, stretching back to March 2024. The last time the club did that was in the 1973/74 season.
Ainsworth had been in charge for 17 of those games – still to taste defeat since taking charge of the club.
The Gills boss said: “That’s some feat for this group of boys, 130 years of Gillingham history, and to go and equal the longest ever run unbeaten run, fair play to the players, fair play to the fans and the staff around me.
“They’ve been brilliant. They deserve that record without a shadow of a doubt, and I’m so, so proud of them. That was a real team performance.
“I’m really hoping everyone sees the grit, the running, the tackling, the headers and that these players are there for each other.
“Okay, we had some quality moves and there’s some good football out there, but that stuff that you can’t buy is brilliant.
“You can always play good ability football, and good passes and things like that, but some of the absolute, ‘you’re not scoring against us today’. We are going to chuck our bodies on the line. We are doing everything possible. What a team. I’m really, really proud of them.”
Ainsworth had to shuffle his side around after injuries to midfielders Armani Little, Ethan Coleman and Nelson Khumbeni, along with the suspension of winger Garath McCleary.
Ainsworth said: “We could have easily gone, ‘Things are against us’ but they went the other way and they went, ‘We’ll show the world that we can still do it’. What a great performance.
“I’m absolutely buzzing for the boys because they’re such a great bunch of boys. Really, really good.
“We’ve got some problems coming up with team selection, I’m telling you, because they’re all playing out of their skin, but to keep this run going and to be still collecting points and keeping this train rolling is really, really good.”
The winning moment came at the start of the second half when Josh Andrews headed in Remeao Hutton’s cross.
“It’s a great move,” said the manager. “It’s a real good move because we said in training all week, our full-backs could be our out balls for us.
“When Elliott Nevitt picked it up and came across the pitch, the patience on the pass to Romeao was brilliant.
“”What a great cross from Romeao. He’s been practising those as well. I’ve told him that his crossing has to improve and he’s gone, ‘Right, I’ll do it’. What a cross, what a header. It was a magnificent start to the second half.”
The Gills were up against a Notts County side who boasted the league’s top scorer in Matty Dennis, another quality striker in Alassana Jatta and a major threat off the bench in Jodi Jones.
It took Notts 87 minutes before they tested Glenn Morris with a shot, as Jones had a dig from 20 yards. He fired another one wide as the Gills ran out 1-0 winners.
Ainsworth said: “It was super defending, super organisation from the boys. I say I want this and that organisation but they have to run and dig deep to do that.
“They have to sprint sometimes 80 yards to be in that formation. So the boys deserve it all.
“They really worked their socks off. I ask them to. We get a bit of credit for that. But they do it. They work their socks off. They are the ones who deserve all the plaudits and I’m sure they’ll get them.”
