Gillingham manager Gareth Ainsworth has spoken of the ‘seemingly endless resources’ available to midweek visitors MK Dons.
While the Gills aren’t short of funds themselves, the Dons have been big spenders in the division this season – and they look like they’ve made it count.
MK Dons are second in the League Two table ahead of their visit to Priestfield, five points behind leaders Bromley and with a game in hand.
They’ll be looking to narrow that gap at the top tonight (Tuesday) while the Gills battle it out for places in the bottom half of the table.
Speaking about their next opponents, Ainsworth said: “MK have brought players from a higher division and seem to have had an endless limit to what they can do.
“They bring this player in, he gets injured or he’s not great, so they’ll bring another one in. We even tried to bring a couple of their players to our place in the summer, thinking they might be out of favour, but they’re keeping them all.
“It’s no wonder they’re up there because they’ve got a big squad and a lot of quality.
“Unfortunately, [money] talks when you sign players like that, and that’s where we are.”
MK beat Harrogate 4-1 at the weekend and are currently on an 11-game unbeaten run.
Ainsworth also spoke about how grateful he is for the backing he has received.
League 2 table;
The Gills are well funded in the division and among the top spenders in League Two. Members of the Fleetwood Town management team had a quick nosey at the facilities on offer for the Gills players after Saturday’s game, before meeting Ainsworth and his team for a post-match catch-up.
Ainsworth said: “Brad and Shannon [Galinson, the owners] have backed me with what I want to do.
“We brought Ronan in, we brought Seb in for money and they’re good signings, big signings, and they will produce. Just wait and see – a bit of patience.”
He added: “MK will be a tough game – but I’m well up for it.”
A win over MK Dons would give Gills fans a lift after a couple of tough afternoons at Priestfield recently, including conceding a late equaliser against Fleetwood on Saturday after a 3-0 loss to Oldham in their previous home game.
“It’ll be a super tough game,” warned the Gills boss.
“They’ve spent a hell of a lot of money bringing some real top quality players and well above this level. If we get something out of that game, that’ll be a real positive as well.
“Fleetwood are decent. They’ve been on a winning run. They went to Walsall midweek and beat Walsall. They beat Newport last week convincingly. They were at Crewe and they could have won by three or four. I’m saying that’s a decent point there [on Saturday].
“We got a few boos at the end of the game. Big picture. Please try and look at the big picture and see how many players were out, what we had on the pitch, what I’m trying to do.
“They won’t get to my boys. I’ll get them up again for Tuesday.
“I’m hoping there’s one or two back from the injury room, but we’ll see where we are.”
Gillingham will be without striker Josh Andrews as he is banned for two games after picking up his 10th booking of the season at the weekend.
Andrews was cautioned against Fleetwood for delaying the restart of play.
