Ronan Hale added another goal to his Gillingham tally on Friday and has been backed to become the 20-goal striker the club has craved.
Hale might get 20 goals this season – the benchmark most strikers aim for – after hitting 12 for Ross County in the first half of the season and adding another four since his move to the Gills.
Gillingham have struggled for goals in recent seasons and haven’t had anyone prolific in front of goal since Vadaine Oliver bagged 20 goals in the 2020/21 season – one without fans in attendance because of Covid.
Before that, in recent years, the Gills have had the likes of Tom Eaves, Cody McDonald and Simeon Jackson reaching 20-plus goals in a season. Older fans will have memories of legends such as Carl Asaba, Ade Akinbiyi, Iffy Onuora, Steve Lovell and Tony Cascarino.
Hale’s goal against Walsall involved a good build-up that involved fellow forwards Seb Palmer-Houlden and Garath McCleary before finishing cooly.
Ainsworth said: “If we can get a 20-goal striker [this season], even though 12 of them are up in Scotland [at former club Ross County], we’ll take that! We can say he’s a 20-goal striker.
“He will be a 20-goal striker for me. I’ve signed him because of the amount of shots he takes, the amount of chances he creates, and just the aplomb he uses sometimes just to put it in the corner.
“Keepers have no chance. They must hate it. They know where it’s going, but he hits it that hard, it just flies in the net.
“He’s a very established finisher. We just want to create more chances now. Ronan himself will say on his hold-up play and things like that, we need to get him better on that as well. But finishing, I don’t need to work on that with him.
“He’s a really good finisher and he loves scoring goals. That’s what I like my strikers to be.
“That’s his fourth of the season [at Gillingham] now for him, and I’m sure he’s desperate for more.
“He’s going to score a lot of goals for this club, I’m pretty certain of that.”
Hale has been playing alongside Palmer-Houlden in recent weeks, in varying formations.
Former Bristol City striker Palmer-Houlden scored Gills’ second at Walsall with an opportunistic finish after a mix-up at the back for the hosts.
Ainsworth said: “He worked so hard for his goal and deserved that as well. We work on these things in training.
“What I want Seb to do is run up people more. He’s got super pace and is a super strong player. I think some of these younger players need to be told what they’re really good at and do it.
“I work on strengths and Seb is such a great physical specimen. We can use that so well, and he’s really coming to. We’ve had some good chats, but the one thing that boy will give you is absolutely everything.
“He was cramping up at the end because he’s given everything up and down the wing and fair play to him. We employed a winger formation [against Walsall] and I thought it looked quite dangerous at times.
“The three forwards, Ronan, Seb and Gareth, they linked up really well for that first goal and it’s a really special goal. That’s right up there.
“People look like the 30-yarder, Robin McKenzie scored a worldly [at Walsall] last year and everyone remembers that. That one [on Friday] should be remembered because that’s a really clever goal.”
