Gillingham Boss Mark Stimson On Tomorrow

Gills boss Mark Stimson

Gills manager Mark Stimson spoke to his club's official website about their home game against Carlisle at the Priestfield Stadium tomorrow, Stimson suggesting that the crowd could have a large part to play in the game :


"I don't think there are any teams in the nothing to play for category at the moment. Everyone is playing for something. Nobody gives you anything in football. What we have to do this Saturday is perform as we did against Bournemouth at home last Saturday. Although they are in the bottom four, they were a decent side. If we can perform like that and keep a clean sheet for longer after we have scored, it could be a more comfortable afternoon.

"Carlisle are a good side and they deserve to be where they are on merit. They are looking for that automatic promotion place so that is a different kind of pressure. If they drop out of that, they'll be looking at the play-offs. They are playing under pressure like us.

"They'll be looking at the table and thinking that we are not doing well and they have won the game. It doesn't work like that as we saw at Port Vale. We played well, had some good chances but bumped into a very good goalkeeper. We'll see who handles the pressure best on Saturday.

"Hopefully we'll have a similar atmosphere to last weekend. The fans were great and they got behind the team from the start with their vocals. The team started brightly too so that always helps. I've always said that the fans are needed, more so than ever before now.

"I am sure Carlisle will bring a little army with them so we must not let them be heard. Every time they murmur, we have got to drown them with our noise. Hopefully the players can produce on the pitch too and we can all have a good Saturday evening.

"It was a great idea from the club to give away those extra tickets and the more people that come in here, the more support we have and the better the atmosphere will be. Good players play better with bigger crowds; that is the buzz you want. You want to be playing in front of a big crowd and a full stadium.

"You don't want only a few hundred watching, you'd want eight or nine thousand in here. As soon as you come onto the pitch, the adrenaline is pumping, the noise is going and that should make a massive difference. The backing in the last couple of home games has been outstanding and long may that continue."

Two players returning to the Gills squad tomorrow will be midfielder and captain Andrew Crofts and centre-half Danny Cullip who both missed the 2-1 defeat at Port Vale on Easter Monday with illness and a hamstring injury respectively.

Striker Donovan Simmonds joined Gillingham on loan to the end of the season from Coventry yesterday but he is serving the final match of a three-game suspension tomorrow, that being the same situation that midfielder Kevin Maher finds himself in too as he will also watch the match from the stands.

In the out tray frontman Delroy Facey joined Wycombe on loan to the end of the season yesterday, Facey joining Efetobre Sodje (Bury) and Stuart Thurgood and Barry Cogan (both Grays) who are also away from the Priestfield Stadium on temporary contracts at the moment.

The last two players definitely missing for the home side tomorrow are veteran centre-half Ian Cox who has left the Gills by mutual consent today and goalkeeper Simon Royce who is out with an ankle problem. That leaving boss Mark Stimson with the following 22 players from which to choose his matchday sixteen :

Derek Stillie, Chris Kiely, Garry Richards, Danny Cullip, Simon King, Barry Fuller, Adam Bygrave, Sean Clohessy, Nicky Southall, Mark Bentley, Andrew Crofts, John Nutter, Craig Stone, Stuart Lewis, Charlie Howard, Adam Miller, Simeon Jackson, Dennis Oli, Leroy Griffiths, Luis Cumbers, Andy Pugh, Gary Mulligan.



The referee for tomorrow afternoon's match is Gavin Ward from Surrey, and he will be assisted down the lines by David Rock from Hatfield in Hertfordshire and Eric Mackrell from Petersfield in Hampshire. Meanwhile the fourth official is David Buck from Gravesend in Kent.