Gareth Ainsworth is prepared for a difficult game as National League Barrow visit the MEMS Priestfield Stadium for Saturday's Emirates FA Cup first round tie.
Barrow, who were relegated from League Two last season, have been on a good run of form in the build-up to Saturday's fixture, and Ainsworth knows that they will present a tough test for his group.
The Gillingham manager provided an update on some players pushing to return to the side, including Zane Albarus, who played 45 minutes in Tuesday night's draw with Huddersfield Town in the Premier League U21 Cup.
Ainsworth discussed the importance of the FA Cup and how great a meaning it carries for the teams in the lower divisions of English football, with this weekend's first round being a huge occasion for many of the clubs in action.
On Saturday's tough test...
We will give it a right go. This team that we are playing, Barrow, they were in the league last year and they have come down and I think that they have won four out of their last five. They are in a really good period of form. They have Adam Murray as manager, who is an ex-league manager.
I think that 22 out of the 24 teams in the National League are professional, so this won't be an easy game.
We will hopefully play how we can play on Saturday, and deserve the victory. That's all that I can say. We will give it everything that we have got. The boys will be up for it.
They are on an amazing run at the moment. They are big, and they are strong. They are handling the National League really well in their first season down there since getting relegated last season. I remember going up there, and that was a crucial win for us in March time. We had to dig deep then, and I think that they are a better team this year. We are up against it, without a doubt.
Team News...
Zane [Albarus] completed 45 last night [vs Huddersfield in Premier League U21 Cup], so he will be right in contention. Liam [Gordon] is on the grass, so he will be champing at the bit to try and get back in. We have to be careful with Liam, but he is up and around it nearly every day now. Liam is not going to be involved.
Zane has got every chance of coming into the team. There are one or two more that are making really good progress behind the scenes. We still have the whacks of Kadeem [Harris] and Eli [King], which hang heavy on us.
He is okay, Nick [Freeman]. We will see how he is. He is a tough cookie, and obviously he wanted to win that one, being an ex-Shrewsbury player, so he gave everything. He got clattered in the cross when he put a cross in, and there was no way that I was going to leave the team with ten men for even a minute up there... We will have a look at Nick, and hopefully, he will be back for it.
Robbie [McKenzie] is okay. He had a knock on his ankle. There are one or two knocks that we will have to look at and see where we go on Saturday, but at the moment, Robbie has been back in training. It is good to have him back in the squad.
The importance of the FA Cup and its meaning to clubs in the lower divisions...
I looked at the draw, and there were Sholing and teams like that. It is just amazing for them. My boy plays in the non-league steps, and they played FA Cup games to try and qualify and get up there. There are thousands of games that people don't see just to dream of getting into the first round, and we used to dream of getting into the third round.
We plucked out Arsenal once away from home when I was at Port Vale. It was a fantastic Arsene Wenger team that we played against, and moments like that are just so special.
We will hopefully be a giant killer this season, but that means we have to not be on the end of a giant-killing on Saturday. That's going to be a tough game, without a doubt. Adam coming down with his Barrow team; they will be treating it really seriously, and they will want to do us. We are treating it just as serious. We want to get through to the next round. Hopefully, we can do it justice.
