3 hours Ago By [email protected] (Luke Cawdell)
Gillingham will have a say in who wins the League 2 title this Saturday - with a chance to send a message to the division for next season. Manager Gareth Ainsworth’s glad he won’t be able to scupper his old team’s promotion hopes when they go to Port Vale but the Gills could stop them claiming the divisional crown. Fan's Eye View: Bring on the party! The Valiants, along with Doncaster Rovers, secured promotion to League 1 last weekend, and there will be a party atmosphere at Vale Park as they battle it out for top spot.
Port Vale are likely to need a win to have a chance to finish the season as champions. Ainsworth moved to Port Vale as a player in 1997 for a fee of £500,000, and was their player-of-the-year during that first season. He moved on just over a year later when Wimbledon paid out £2million.
Both fees remain Vale club records. “Thank goodness Port Vale have been promoted,” joked Ainsworth. “Well done to them.
It’s one of my old teams and a team that means a lot to me. “They’re up there now, which is great. I know they’ll be going for the title, but we’ll have a full-blooded row about that and see where we can end up.
“I’d love to sign the season off with a win, especially at a team that’s been promoted. That’d be a big message. But I’m down a couple of players, so we’ll have to see how that goes.
“It will be a super tough game. Port Vale spent a hell of a lot of money, [have] got a lot of players and Darren Moore is a great manager, getting them straight back up [after last season’s relegation], so fair play. “I would have hated to be the team that kept them down, because obviously I’ve got a lot of history at Port Vale, and it’s a fantastic football club.
“They’re great people as well who run that place. I think it’ll be a bit of a party atmosphere. Hopefully we can catch them cold and maybe come away with a win.
” League 2 table More: Ainsworth set to stamp his mark on the Gills The Gills look set to finish 17th in League 2, nowhere near their pre-season aims. Ainsworth’s the third manager of the campaign at ME7 but he’s heading into the summer in positive mood. Gillingham haven’t lost since he took charge - it’s eight games unbeaten under Ainsworth and 11 in total.
The Gills have also managed at least one goal in each of those games and Ainsworth hopes the club are starting to see the back of their goalscoring problems. “We’re creating more chances,” said the Gills boss. “I was told when I came in that we haven’t got a goalscorer in the building.
I’m thinking: ‘Right, have we? Or do we not create enough easy chances for the goalscorers?’. “You have to look deeper into that than just going, ‘Right, get me a goalscorer’. There’s all sorts of reasons why.
“You’re seeing the team empty the tank. You’re seeing the team trying things. The odd ball goes out of play.
The odd pass doesn’t go right but the goal [on Saturday] was something special. It was a magic moment. “Goalscoring has been an issue but I intend to improve that.
” The Gills will be without Joe Gbode, who has scored in each of the last two games, due to suspension..
