Manager Steve Lovell has warned against a repeat of Gillingham’s early-season shocker at Rochdale when the sides meet again.

Gills lost 3-0 at Spotland in September, when an angry Lovell laid the blame fairly at the door of his players.

The return takes place at Priestfield on Saturday with the Gills up to 12th in League 1 but still only five points clear of the drop zone.

Dale are in the bottom four but have taken seven points from nine under caretaker manager Brian Barry-Murphy, so there’s plenty riding on the fixture.

Lovell said: “It’s not a case of owing them one. We lost up there because we weren’t very good and they were good. The same thing could happen down here on Saturday.

“If we’re not very good and they’re good, they’ll beat us. So we’ve got to make sure we’re as good as we have been the last seven or eight games.

“If we do that we’ll give them a game and if we perform like we have done recently, we should get a result.

“But they’re fighting for their lives, they’ve won two and drawn one of their last three games so they’re on a bit of a run and they will be confident coming here.

“But it’s a game I think they have to pick something up from.

“They’ve got to win the game or get something from it and they will be out to move up the table as quickly as they can. They might come at us or they might sit back and try and get a point.

“We’ve got to approach it better than we did in the first half at Wimbledon.

“We were excellent as the game went on but we’ve got to start brighter than we did there on Saturday.”

Lovell has no regrets at his Spotland outburst and will always tell the players what he thinks.

It caused a stir when he said the defeat was all the players’ fault but there was nothing heat-of-the-moment about it.

Lovell said: “Everything I say, I mean to say it because it’s done for a reason.

“I think the Plymouth game later in the year, when we lost 3-1 and were terrible, I said exactly the same thing and there were certain players that left this football club.

“Things had to be done. It’s a job and it’s a business that you want to finish as high as you can and you can’t let things stand in your way.

“There’s no point pussyfooting around. When things need to be said, they need to be said.

“You’ve got to say things and you’ve got to deal with the situations when they come along but you do it in a way that they understand why you’re doing it. That’s the difference.

“It’s all right having a go at people but it will be tactical if I’m going to say anything. I will never come in and just have a go because that doesn’t do anything. It’s what went wrong and how can we put it right?”

Midfielder Billy Bingham is back in training following an injury and should be fit for next weekend’s trip to Peterborough.

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