Gillingham face Crawley Town in the area quarter-finals of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy
Published: 00:00, 11 November 2014
Updated: 08:15, 11 November 2014
Gillingham won’t be taking their Johnstone’s Paint Trophy match at Crawley lightly.
Boss Peter Taylor is desperate for a win and will be naming a strong team in the competition tomorrow (Tuesday) night.
“We just need to win a match and hopefully it will come on Tuesday night,” said Taylor, whose only other success in the last 10 games was a shoot-out victory at Colchester in the previous round.
“We need a win to lift a lot of people, on and off the field.
“A win will give everyone a lift. If you win that match then you are getting much closer to a fantastic day out (at Wembley in the final) but I am sure Crawley will be thinking exactly the same as us.
"There might be some forced changes but there will be less chance of it being too many changes.”
Gillingham have already beaten Stevenage and Colchester in earlier rounds, both away from home.
Like the Gills, Tuesday’s area quarter-final opponents Crawley also suffered an FA Cup first round exit at the weekend, losing 1-0 to Yeovil. The recent meeting of the two teams in the league ended in a 1-1 draw.
Taylor will have keeper Stephen Bywater back available after he was ineligible for the FA Cup game on Saturday. Callum Davies (foot) and Luke Norris (knee) also have a chance of being involved. Defender Kortney Hause misses out as he is is on international duty with England under-20s.
Josh Pritchard was an injury concern at the weekend and may be pushing for a return after being an unused substitute on Saturday.
“Josh slipped outside his apartment and hurt his hip and because of that we couldn’t guarantee him playing 90 minutes,” revealed Taylor. “I just couldn’t take that chance, but that’s the way it’s been at the moment.”
Amine Linganzi and Aaron Morris (both hamstring) have returned to training but are unlikely to be fit in time.
Taylor added: “It is a very important game and it’s the area quarter-final. It is something we want to progress in.”
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Luke Cawdell