Gillingham will hope to make it three league wins in a row on Saturday and face a team that have had it tough this week.

While the Gills enjoyed a week on the training ground, weekend hosts Accrington named their strongest team available to play League 1 Bolton Wanderers in the third round of the EFL Trophy.

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Accrington lost Wednesday night’s match 3-1 at home and will have to regroup quickly ahead of Gillingham’s visit to the Wham Stadium.

Gillingham assistant coach Robbie Stockdale said: “Confidence is high because that is what winning does to you.

“We know it is a very difficult game, Accrington is never easy. They have very experienced staff, players that know the levels really well. I went there with MK Dons last year (as assistant head coach) and it was a tough game.

“John Coleman and his staff will no doubt be well organised as they always are but they played (on Wednesday night) and hopefully we can take advantage of that, with us having a free week.

“But we focus on ourselves, how we can hurt the opposition and try and nullify their threats as well.

“It’s always about what we do, let’s go and attack them, let’s go and see if teams can live with us. I am not a great believer of matching the opposition, let’s see if we can raise above that and see if they can match us.

“We are relatively equal in the league at the moment and we need to make sure that we try and get all three points and go above them.”

The Gills are 11th in the table, one below their weekend hosts, both on the same points.

League 2 table

While the Gills are underachieving - promotion is the aim this season - Accrington are managing to challenge for the play-offs themselves with less resources under a manager who has been there for almost 20 years.

“It is no surprise to me that they are where they are,” said Stockdale.

“His recruitment has always been really good and the experience probably helps him, he know what he wants and nine times out of 10 he gets the players to fit the way he wants to play.

“To have that longevity in the game is incredible really, to carry on, just having the enthusiasm to do it.

“Accrington always is a tough game, we will have to be close to our max to get anything out of it.”

The Gills have won their last two league games 1-0 but were beaten 4-0 by Sheffield United in the FA Cup last time out.

The Premier League side showed their ruthless side, capitalising on Gillingham’s mistakes.

Stockdale said: “We need to be better at both ends of the pitch and just tidy that up. Box to box we were really good last Saturday with some good passages of play, but in this division nine times out of 10 you win or lose because of what happens in the two 18-yard boxes.”