Derby County 2 Gillingham 0

GILLINGHAM manager Stan Ternent believes his players will keep their nerve as the relegation battle reaches a climax.

The 2-0 defeat at Derby on Saturday means Gillingham drop to 20th in the table and could need to win both their last two games to avoid the drop.

Yet if Brighton and Crewe lose at Rotherham and Ipswich respectively on Saturday, then a win over Cardiff at Priestfield would secure the Gills' Championship survival.

The worst case scenario would see Gills travelling to Nottingham Forest on the final day of the season needing a result to stay up.

But whatever the situation, Ternent is confident his squad are up to the challenge, despite their nine-game unbeaten run coming to an end on Saturday.

Ternent said: "I'm confident my players' nerves will hold. They will be up for the Cardiff game. Even if they didn't want to, they'd have to.

"We have to take the defeat to Derby on the chin and prepare for the game against Cardiff. It looks like it's going to go right down to the wire and, in an ideal world, that's a game that we would want to win.

"But I'm sure that when the ball moves at 3 o'clock next Saturday, the players will be fine. If we'd been offered 48 points at this stage when we took over at the club, we'd have taken that."

Ternent heaped praise on his team for the way they played at Pride Park and put the result down to a series of missed chances.

While the home side found the target through Morten Bisgaard in the 33rd minute and Paul Peschisolido in the 72nd, Gillingham's Darius Henderson, Darren Byfield and Jonathan Douglas were all guilty of missing good chances.

"It's quite simple," said Ternent. "We had three or four gilt-edged chances and we didn't take them. Goals change games.

"But the players did well. They gave everything and you cannot ask for more than that. I tried to change things around by playing three at the back for the second half but it didn't pay off."

Mamady Sidibe missed the Derby match with a slight hamstring problem but is expected to be back for Saturday. But Ternent ruled out any chance of midfielder Mark Saunders returning from a broken leg for the final two games.

He said: "Mark Saunders is doing really well in training but the physios didn't think it was a good idea for him to come back at the moment."

GILLS JURY:

"It was a game of missed chances as Henderson, Byfield and Flynn all missed sitters, which a top striker would have put away and changed the game.

"We missed Big Mama in attack. He may not score loads of goals, but he has passion and causes defenders all sorts of problems. I hope he’s back for Saturday. I’ve not seen the goals on television, but they both looked like defensive errors.

"I only hope we can take our chances against Cardiff which is now a huge six-pointer. If we win and Brighton or Crewe lose we are safe." (Keith Pestell, Rainham)
Team Rating: 7

"I thought Gillingham gave a lack-lustre performance, which was surprising because so much is at stake right now. We missed Mamady Sidibe up front because Darren Byfield didn’t look up for it.

"It now looks certain that we will need all three points next week against Cardiff to ease our relegation worries, though we’ll be looking at other results. I just hope it doesn’t go down to the wire on the last day at Nottingham Forest." (Gary Liptrott, Walderslade)
Team rating: 6

"The difference was they had a goal scorer and we didn’t. I don’t know why Darren Byfield was playing. He has the skill but something is missing. I’d rather see Matty Jarvis play because at least he looks like he wants it.

"I’d like to ask Paul Scally not to walk alongside the pitch with the team for the last two games. He hasn’t done it for ages and I think he jinxed us on Saturday. Also, he must act now to sign Stan because he and his loan signings have turned it around. Others will be after him so we have to get in first." (Pam Tyler, Gillingham)
Team Rating: 7

"A lot of Gills fans I spoke to at the game believe the club are safe, but I’m not so sure. It’s still in our own hands but Saturday’s match with Cardiff will be anything but easy.

"At the end of last season, after Gillingham saved themselves at Stoke, Paul Scally promised that it would never happen again. But here we go again. I hope that Mamady Sidibe is fit to face Cardiff because we really missed him up front against Derby." (Steve Styles, Portsmouth)
Team rating: 7

Related articles

Derby County v Gills: how the players rated
Don't miss a minute of the action