Gillingham manager Stephen Clemence has insisted his side can still have a good run-in despite dropping to 13th in the League Two table following Tuesday night’s run of games.
The Gills have taken just one point from their last three games, scoring just one goal and conceding six. Despite his relative inexperience with this being his first managerial role, the 46-year-old’s side had been in form since his appointment at the start of November, when he took over the reins from current Millwall boss Neil Harris.
This is the Kent-based side’s second season in League Two following relegation from the third tier in the 21-22 season, and last season they finished 17th so it’s a considerable improvement. That being said they’ve been flirting with the play-offs this season before falling apart at Harrogate Town in the 5-1 humiliation and the 1-0 defeat to mid-table Bradford City.
This isn’t the first time this season they’ve struggled. Prior to the win against Morecambe in March they hadn’t won in their previous four games. With a goals per game return of just 0.9 it’s easy to see how they’ve fallen away from the top seven.
Speaking to Kent Online ahead of the home match with play-off hopefuls Barrow this Saturday, Clemence said:
“It is frustrating but I will keep fighting hard and keep working with the boys to make them better.”
“If we don’t get better then we will always be a team where we are now, in the middle of the table, because you have to take games away from people and we haven’t done that enough.”
“We should have scored (on Saturday), we should have taken the game away from Bradford, but we were unable to do it.”
“We have had plenty of opportunities ourselves to get in there and we haven’t been able to capitalise. The table doesn’t lie at the end of the day, you finish where you deserve to finish.”
Following the weekend’s game against Barrow they finish their season with tough matches against third-placed Mansfield Town before ending their campaign against play-off chasing Doncaster Rovers, who themselves are on a seven game unbeaten run.
Writer’s View
It can’t be denied that the Gills have one of the toughest run-ins possible so it’s understandable that Clemence is rallying his troops. The experienced heads of the likes of Ollie Hawkins and Timothy Dieng to name but a few will be hoping to stir up the younger players in the squad.
Being just five points off the play-offs, it is still mathematically possible to make it to the end of season bonanza but realistically there are teams that are more in-form and another season in League Two beckons. Still, anything can happen in this league and they won’t have given up hope just yet.
