Manager Gareth Ainsworth is confident he has the backing from the Gillingham fans who want to ‘come on this journey with me.’
The Gills slipped further away from the play-off places with another defeat on Tuesday night and are now five points adrift of a top-half place in League 2.
Ainsworth took over as manager of the Gills towards the end of last season and immediately made them hard to beat.
Fans were optimistic of a promotion challenge this season, and things started well, but it’s looking unlikely now after coming away from two away trips without any points.
The Gills have struggled to claim points off any of the leading sides in the division but Ainsworth is sure he can get the side firing – even if that means starting again next season.
He thanked the “fantastic” Gills fans who had followed his team to Chesterfield on a cold Tuesday night and said: “I spoke to a couple of Chesterfield fans there actually, on a walk I was on, and they said, ‘We hate all the fans that get frustrated in the stadium. ‘We like to support [their manager] Paul [Cook] and things’.
“I’m saying I’m lucky because I do get supported. I really do. There’s not been a lot of frustration for us. We’ve had the odd boos here and there at half-time at Priestfield. But I understand that.
“Sometimes it’s not even us, it’s at the ref or something, so they’ve been very patient. I think that they want to come on this journey with me. I’m hoping that’s true.”
Fans are frustrated at another season where the club have been unable to sustain a promotion challenge.
“There will always be some frustrations,” conceded the Gills boss.
“There will always be the keyboard warriors and the message boys. That happens.
“I don’t ever see it, so don’t worry about trying to post anything to me, because you’ll never get to me.
“It’s the modern game. It really is. But I am lucky because I know I’ve got support.
“More importantly, my team have got support when they’re on the pitch, and that is very important for a football fan to give.”
Ainsworth’s contract runs until the end of next season, and it’s in that timeframe that the club tasked him to get the team challenging for promotion.
He said: “We speak regularly, me and the owners, and the plan is in place.
“It’s just now getting a bit of patience, a bit of understanding, and if we’re not flying next year, then [the fans] have got every right to start looking at me. But I’m sure we will be. Just nights like [Tuesday] are frustrating.”
The Gills take on lowly Oldham Athletic this Saturday at home.
With 15 games left, it’s not mathematically over for the Gills and Ainsworth said: “I’ll never say never, but we need to start winning games.
“We’ve got a good few games coming up now, where I’m thinking, ‘Right, if we really want to do something, boys, these are the teams that we should be taking points off’.
“Let’s start taking points off teams that maybe are underneath us. That’s what I want to do. I want to say, ‘Right here we are and I want to do it at home. I want to do it at Priestfield, because the fans deserve it.”
