Take a look at Town's pre-match preview for Gillingham.
This weekend we welcome Gillingham to Montgomery Waters Meadow for our second Sky Bet League One game of the season. The Gills started their season with two cup games, beating Southend 1-0 in the Carabao Cup and then Crawley Town 2-1 in the EFL Trophy. They followed that results with another couple of home games but lost 0-2 to Hull City in their first league action of the season. However, they did beat Coventry in the League Cup on penalties after a 1-1 draw.
Gillingham's first away action saw them beat Wigan 3-2 for their first league win of the league season but followed that up with a 1-0 away defeat to Stoke City in the Carabao Cup. Last weekend, the Gills entertained Blackpool - although the entertainment value in losing 2-0 may have been wasted on the Seasiders.
Goals
Five goals in three league games or nine goals from seven games when you factor in the cup goals. That's not a bad return when you think that they've played two Championship teams and two of the newly relegated teams. They've conceded seven goals from those seven games giving them a +2 goal difference in all games and a +1 difference in the league. Gillingham have failed to score in just two games, once against Hull City in L1 and once against Stoke City in the League Cup.
Goalscorers (cup goals in brackets)
Jordan Graham 2(1)
Dominic Samuel 2
Trae Coyle 1(1)
Clean Sheets
One at home in the League Cup against Southend and one at home in League One against Blackpool.
Referee: James Adcock from Notts. Games this season 4. Yellow cards: 5. Red cards: 1.
Assistants: Marvyn Amphlett and Andrew Aylott
Fourth Official: Joe Clar.
Squad News:
Town have a number of injuries with Matija Sarkic and Ryan Sears ruled out for 2-3 months and others nursing less serious injuries.
By contrast, Steve Evans has plenty of options including new loan defender, Declan Drysdale who arrived from Coventry City in the week.
Gillingham have played a couple of games more than us so far but they've just had their first midweek without a game this season and may feel a little fresher than in recent weeks
Summary
We face another team in good form this weekend, managed by an old foe in the form of Steve Evans. He's become a sort of pantomime villain for some Town fans over the years but the reality is that he's a passionate manager who has the ability to make teams more than just the sum of their parts. So we'll face a motivated Gillingham and we'll have to work very hard to stop them.
Our own performances have been very encouraging so far, we've faced some good teams and have given a good account of ourselves. We haven't registered a league win so far but I have the feeling that this is a team that is coming together nicely. A win is surely just around the corner, let's hope it's this weekend!