Gills boss Gareth Ainsworth was an immensely proud man on Saturday as his team defeated Notts County 1-0 to equal a club record of 20 league fixtures unbeaten.
Josh Andrews scored the only goal of the game at MEMS Priestfield Stadium with Ainsworth’s men joint top of the division as a result.
Reaction to victory and equaling record…
First of all to equal that record, and we didn’t really speak about it, you know in 130 years of Gillingham history to go and equal the longest unbeaten run…fair play to the players, fair play to the fans and the staff around me.
They’ve been brilliant, they deserve that record without a shadow of a doubt and I’m so proud of them. That was a real team performance and I’m really hoping everyone sees their grit, their running, their tackling, their headers, and that these players are there for each other.
Forced into some changes…
We had some knocks in the week , we lost Armani, we lost Ethan [Coleman], we lost Nelson [Khumbeni], three midfielders in a week, Garath [McCleary] obviously can’t play so we could have easily had things go against us, but they went the other way and they went and showed the world that we can still do it, and what a great performance.
I’m really proud of these boys and I’m absolutely buzzing for them because they’re such a great bunch of boys - they’re really good. It’s starting to cause problems with team selection because they’re all playing out of their skin, but now we have to keep this run going and have to still keep collecting points and keep this train rolling.
Josh Andrews getting consistent game time…
Coming in last season my only dealings with Josh were in the treatment room and I’ve been saying `don’t worry, I’ve been there, you’ll be back from this and we’ll get you back stronger.`
He’s brought into everything we’ve done and he’s brought into everything we think is best for him, like the intensity of sessions and getting him fit and managing his minutes and, again, the medical team and the sports science team have been brilliant, absolutely brilliant - we’ve got a player.
It was a super header.
The Goal….
It was a great move because we said in training all week that our full backs could put in balls for us and when Nev picked it up and was coming across the pitch the patience on the pass to Romero was brilliant.
What a great cross from Remeao; I’ve told him his crossing needs to improve and he’s gone `right, I’ll do it’ and what a cross, and what a header. It was a magnificent start to the second half but then there’s other things on the pitch, the unsungs, the two centre-halves. The all-round performance from everyone was really good and it was great to see Jonny Smith out there. He hasn’t played much football at all for Wigan this season so his legs were giving up, but he had a great sort of introduction to Priestfield and I think he realises this is a decent place when it’s rocking so thank you fans, you got us over the line again.
The environment…
This feels reminiscent of things I’ve done in the past; this team are together and they are a real good bunch, from your youngest player to your 38-year-old winger who can’t be involved at the moment. Everyone is just buying into everything - it’s absolutely superb. It was Bradley’s [Dack] first 90 minutes for a while too. There were some real good milestones today and I’m pleased we got over the line because they’re a very decent opponent, they’re a very good side.
