Gillingham Football Club

Gillingham manager Justin Edinburgh believes his side’s draw at Rochdale on Tuesday night has given the players a boost ahead of Saturday’s home match against Shrewsbury Town.

John Egan’s equaliser at Spotland kept the Gills in the League One play-off places with three games remaining, the first of which is the club’s Kids for a Quid and Family Fun Day at the MEMS Priestfield Stadium against the struggling Shrews. 

“What Tuesday’s game proves is that we have the desire, togetherness and stomach for this fight,” said Edinburgh. “To come from behind and gain a point on the road gives us a lift going into the Shrewsbury game.

“I don’t think you accomplish anything easily in football, so we’ve got to make sure we keep our fate down to ourselves. 

“If results go our way on Saturday, we could go up to fourth. That’s not me being clever, that’s just how tight it is this season, and it’s an open league.”

Despite starting well in the last two home games against Walsall and Port Vale, the Gills missed out on picking up valuable points in their promotion push.

Edinburgh added: “It’s a blip, that’s all it is. I know the fans are as desperate as us to get back to winning ways. 

“In both games we’ve started well, and we haven’t been able to come from behind.  But I’ll sit here and argue the case: I don’t think we’ve played poorly, I don’t think we look like a team void of confidence.

“I’d disagree with people who think that, but that’s football. It’s all about opinions, that’s why we love it. 

“We go out to win every game, but recently we haven’t got that first goal, and more often than not when we have in games, we’ve gone on to take the three points.”

Edinburgh has a near full squad of players to choose from on Saturday, although Andrew Crofts (hamstring) and Dominic Samuel (knee) will miss out once again.

“We didn’t pick up any more injuries on Tuesday night, and George Williams is back in the squad for the game,” he added.

“Crofts won’t be available this weekend, nor will Dom Samuel, who’ll return to training with us on Monday.”