Gillingham will be aiming for a third straight victory when they host Cheltenham Town on Friday night.

Back-to-back wins have restored confidence in the team and manager Mark Bonner is looking ahead towards a crucial period that can become the springboard for success.

Bonner’s men beat League 2’s in-form team, MK Dons, last weekend and he said: “It’s a massively important time of year.

“The number of games that we have by the time we get to the end of the Fleetwood game on January 11 will be 25. It’s a chance to set up the season, really.

“We’ve got to take the [winning] days, be really happy with them, recover from them and get ready to do it all again because we’ve got to try and find some consistency.

“Look how open the league is, it’s madness. A run of results and consecutive results and putting chains of wins together, or unbeaten runs, can transform the table quite quickly. That’s what we’ve got to try and do.

“We’ve got to start stacking results together.”

The Gills beat Salford City 1-0 last time out at Priestfield but the task at MK Dons was a whole different level. They met a team who had won their last six, but emerged victorious again.

“The fact that we backed that [Salford win] up is a really good one because the truth is in the period of time over the last couple of months, probably no one gave us a cat in hell’s chance [last Saturday], which is really nice when you can then come and do it.

“Fair play to the lads for it and now we have to do it again.”

Friday night visitors Cheltenham - managed by former Gills player Michael Flynn - have improved since making a slow start in League 2 after relegation last season.

They’re four unbeaten, with a win last time out, but after just toppling an MK Dons side who had won six in a row, form means nothing and Bonner will still be wary.

He said: “They are a team that can get right level with us if they win the game and they’re in good form themselves.

“They’re not going to make it easy for us at all. It’ll be a really tough one.

“I just want the lads to feel good about themselves for the level that they found [last Saturday] and ultimately the result and the energy that’s created from a game like that. We have to keep building.

“There’s a nice atmosphere bubbling away at the moment, which off the back of results that we’ve had is great. That’s three wins in five for us now, a good position to be in.

“The next opportunity to try and go three on the bounce will be on Friday. We’ll do everything we can to try and find a level that allows us to do it.”