Gareth Ainsworth is prepared for another difficult long away trip as Gillingham travel to Rochdale on Saturday.
Saturday's opponents, who were promoted from the National League last season, won their first league game of the campaign in midweek against Shrewsbury. Ainsworth will be ensuring his team are aware of the threats Rochdale will pose.
Harry Waldock and Logan Dobbs have come into the starting XI over the past couple of weeks and impressed. The Gills boss is glad to see the academy graduates making progress, but knows that there is a responsibility to manage the pair through the early stages of their career.
Tuesday night also saw the transfer deadline pass, with the club signing Eli King permanently from Cardiff City, and Zech Obiero on a season-long loan from Leyton Orient. Ainsworth discussed the two new signings.
Looking towards Saturday...
They are a decent outfit. The jump from non-league to the league now is not anything like it used to be. It is very close.
We have to be aware of Rochdale. I don't want anyone thinking that this is a team that has been in non-league for a few years. This is a tough team to go to.
I know that I am four without a win, and you need to win in this game.
On Harry Waldock and Logan Dobbs' start to the season, and ensuring they are managed correctly...
Harry had made a few appearances last year, and Logan has been a steady one that we have always known. Everyone looks at him and thinks, 'Wow, what a size Logan is.' Both of them have come in this season, and I think that Harry has improved on last season. I think that he has gone away and done some really good work on himself, and Logan is maturing and probably still growing a little bit into his body and realising what he is. But a fantastic first few games from him. I am really pleased.
It is about now predicting when they may need to come out. If they are going to have a dip, if they are happy and if they are healthy, because young players do seem to do that. Me and Dobbo [Richard Dobson], over the years, have been able to manage that quite well.
On the deadline day signings of Eli King and Zech Obiero...
It was really good to get them in. People probably forget about Jack Daley now, who was a bit of a last-minute signing as well. We got him in on Saturday.
Eli is going to bring quality in midfield. He is above the level, and we are lucky to have him. He has been through a tough injury with a cruciate ligament last year. Seeing what he did at Stevenage and talking to Brian Barry-Murphy [now head coach at Cardiff], who I played with at Preston, so I got the insight on him, where he is, and how good he can be.
Watching him in training, we have got a good one there. Hopefully, he can come in and really impact this squad. He has not played a 90 yet in pre-season, so he is still just about building up the last couple of weeks from that cruciate ligament injury. He is quite confident that he could jump into the first team now and play, and that is what I want.
Zech Obiero as well, we watched last year at Tranmere. There were two midfielders at Tranmere; it was Whitaker and Obiero, and they both caused problems in games. They are both ball carriers. Once Zech became available and we knew about that, we all said, yeah.
He is the dribbler that probably Kadeem [Harris] was, and Kadeem is going to be out for a lengthy period of time now. We have got somebody who can carry the ball, run at people, picks it up and make things happen. I think that he is going to be an exciting player as well.
Thank you to Leyton Orient and Cardiff for enabling us to make those deals happen on deadline day.
