18 hours Ago By [email protected] (Luke Cawdell)
Gillingham’s new boss Gareth Ainsworth hopes the fans will give him the time to turn things around. Tuesday night’s performance against Colchester was a great sign of what could be coming but he’s warned that there will be tough times, too. The Gills had to settle for a point after a 1-1 draw, but the performance deserved a lot more.
It was arguably their best showing this season. “Please, fans, give us some time.” said Ainsworth, speaking directly to supporters.
“There won’t be always some great moments like [on Tuesday]. It will go tough sometimes, if I can just have your backing.” He added: “They’re knowledgeable people, the fans, they know football.
“Coming off [at Priestfield] I could hear the comments and I know that, I’ve played here many times. This is the only [Football League] team for a long time in Kent. We’re proud of that and I want the fans to embrace what we’re trying to do here.
“It’s the start of the journey. There’ll be tough games. There’ll be tough moments.
We’ll have to stick together and get through them but that is this journey and this identity we’re going to come up with and eventually get to our end goal. “Speaking to [the club bosses] Shannon [Galinson], Joe [Comper] and Brad [Galinson], I’ve come in to change a culture, to put processes in place, to put performances in place and results will be a by-product of this. Wins will be a by-product of this.
“I think we’ve gone at this club, looking from the outside, too much on trying to grab the trophy straight away and going, ‘we’ll get that, we’ll get this’. We forgot that you have to build something to get there. “You’ve got to build and you’ve got to get the structure together.
I’m proud that they’ve backed me to do it.” Gillingham fans seemed to appreciate Tuesday night’s display, many suggesting it was the best of the campaign. Ainsworth said: “Some people were coming off and saying, ‘oh, that’s the best performance of the season’.
I don’t want people getting carried away. “It was a good performance, definitely. You’ve had some cracking results this season as well, one swallow doesn’t make a season.
“We are going to definitely work hard and improve on things and goalscoring is one of them. That’s apparent with the 19 shots. I mean, the keeper has made a couple of good saves, but really testing him, really hitting that target at the right place? “I can say everything now about this team and that team was a team that I put my name to and I was really proud of them.
” Ainsworth’s first two games have followed a similar pattern with comeback 1-1 draws, both equalisers coming from the penalty spot with Max Clark converting. Oli Hawkins has also come off the bench twice to win the penalties. Tuesday’s performance was a marked improvement from the weekend, however.
But Ainsworth said: “I’m not getting carried away because against Harrogate, I was thinking, ‘oh wow, this is League Two again’. It was hard and it was windy. The pitch was terrible.
“But at home on that pitch with those fans behind you, the boys looked confident and looked like they wanted to play and they’ve came in buzzing and we’ll take another point. We’ll slowly get over this line, I’m sure.” The Gills are on the road in the next two games, at Salford on Saturday and then Chesterfield in midweek.
A visit from MK Dons on April 12 is the next time they play at home. Ainsworth said: “Now the weather’s turning, come down, get behind us, enjoy what will be a good end to a season. But ultimately, it’s the journey that I want them to join and get on board.
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