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Gillingham first-team coach Nicky Southall writes exclusively for the KM Group

By: Alex Hoad

Published: 06:00, 27 April 2012

Nicky Southall

I am sure everyone has been looking at all of the possible permutations ahead of the next two weekends and we are no different.

What we need to make sure above anything else though is that we go to Northampton on Saturday and get a win.

A fantastic performance against Swindon last weekend gives us a chance now. It might be a slim one but we are still involved.

Some people may criticise the idea of the play-offs but for me it’s a great way of keeping interest levels up right until the end of the season and for some there is a Wembley final to look forward to.

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Crewe, Cheltenham and Oxford are above us chasing a place and even below us, Aldershot won’t be giving up.

We might just sneak in there on the last day and we have had a few of those occasions at this club before. There have been some occasions where it hasn’t worked out for us but maybe this time it will.

We were deserved winners against Swindon and Chris Whelpdale’s second goal was outstanding. I was right behind it as it went into the top corner. He seems to have a knack of chipping the keeper. He did something similar at Torquay and he does it quite regularly in training.

Their manager Paolo Di Canio is certainly a passionate man and we all saw that on Saturday. He spent more time turning around, talking and gesticulating to his backroom staff on the bench than watching the actual game.

Paolo has had a rough time recently, with his mother’s death, but his team have been the best this season and fair play to him. They deserve to go up.

We looked at our bench for that game, with Simon King, Danny Spiller, Curtis Weston, Dennis Oli and Rowan Vine all on there, and it was definitely the best squad we’ve named this season.

Adebayo Akinfenwa celebrates his winner against Stevenage

Adebayo Akinfenwa, pictured, is someone we all know about and this weekend he will be doing his best to score against us.

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He is a great lad and he was excellent for us last season alongside Cody McDonald.

We look forward to seeing him again. He knows all about us, while we know about him. It hasn’t been a good hunting ground at Northampton for us over the last few years but we need to show no fear and take the game to them.

We want to nullify Bayo and maybe it will be a case of doing what teams did to us last season with a man in front of him and trying to protect the service into him and get a high line up the pitch. The closer to goal he is the more of a threat he is.

Kent Matchday Live

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