Gareth Ainsworth is keen for his Gillingham side to remain focused on themselves ahead of the trip to Crawley Town on Saturday.
This weekend's opponents head into the game off the back of a managerial change, with former Sheffield United, Fenerbahçe and Derby County forward Colin Kazim-Richards now in the Crawley dugout. Despite the change of manager, Ainsworth was keen not to let that change their preparations for the game, as he calls for his squad to give everything that they have.
It has been a frustrating season for the Gills boss, who has had his squad hampered with injuries, but he knows that it is a part of football, and is keen to find a solution to improve the injury situation next season. However, with eight games remaining, Ainsworth is hoping that his team can finish the campaign strong.
The injury situation in recent weeks has allowed younger players to step up into the first-team environment, something the 52-year-old believes will have a positive impact on their careers.
Preparations for Saturday...
We have to focus on ourselves and what we can do. I want to do that from now until the end of the season. Everyone can get frustrated, and everyone can be down about it, but listen, I am positive. We go again. We will have a go at Crawley, who have changed their manager. We seem to have had that quite a few times this season, but you have to go there and give everything that you have got.
We will work on things that we are going to do, rather than what Crawley are going to do, because we don't really know. Obviously, they have had a change of manager, and Scott Lindsey is well known in these parts as well as anywhere. He is a good friend, and I am gutted for Scott, but it is football management, and that's what happens. We have to make sure that we play our game on Saturday, and we go there and get the points.
Discussing the injury issues throughout the season and ending the campaign strong...
Everyone gets it. They are slowly coming back. It has been one of the worst that I have ever known in my career. We seem to have a lot of them, but there are reasons, and there are reasons to solve it, and there are also ways to improve it. We are going to try and do that. You have to live with injuries in football, but it is tough.
You lose your best players; they are big. They are key for you, and we have had too much of that. No violins out, we will go again. You have to pick up. It is opportunities for everyone else, and hopefully, one or two will come back from now until the end of the season, which will come quick.
I just don't want the season to peter out into nothing. I have got pride, and I want to make sure that we turn some teams over, and I want us to have a say at the top end of the table. We will definitely be going for it.
It has hampered us, as well as a few things this season. It has made it a little stop-start, but next season I am hoping that we will be a lot better.
The benefit of the youth team players taking their opportunities in the first-team...
What I will say is that people like Michael Luxton and Harry Waldock from the youth setup coming up and stepping up, that is fantastic. It really is. They are going to get so much experience and become much better players earlier in their careers because of those experiences.
