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Manager Mark Bonner will pick a Gillingham team that will “fight and have a real go” in their match against Bromley tonight.
The Gills lost 2-1 at Bromley just a month ago and although wins against Salford and MK Dons followed, the remainder of December saw Bonner’s men take one point from a possible nine.
Bonner’s team put in a determined effort last time out against Wimbledon but lost 1-0 and the manager needed to assess the fitness of his men to see how many of them were ready to go again, three days later.
Speaking after that loss on Monday, Bonner said: “We just need to see where we are and find a team that can fight and have a real go against Bromley.
“It's a game where we need to respond and keep trying to find a way of winning.
“We're going to need to turn in some wins quickly and get scoring goals quickly, because if we don't, then it can drift away fast.”
The Gills had been booed off at Colchester on Boxing Day by many away fans after a 2-0 loss but there was some appreciation for the efforts at Wimbledon - albeit without taking any points home.
Bonner said: “I would boo my team off the pitch on Boxing Day, but I wouldn't boo them off the pitch (at Wimbledon) because I really liked what they gave us.”
The manager played Bradley Dack from the start for the first time in a league game, since his summer return. Armani Little was also a starter after recently coming back from injury.
Dack managed 79 minutes and Little played the full match.
With a trip to Chesterfield on Sunday, Bonner doubts he’ll be able to put them and others through it all again.
He said: “Dacky and Armani went bigger in the game than they should and it will be tough for them to go again.
“Elliott Nevitt’s done a lot of games on the bounce. Robbie McKenzie’s done a lot of games on the bounce.
“With all these games coming really fast, there's no way we'll see those players in both of the next two games. We'll just have to see how that goes.
“There's been a fair bit of illness around and things like that.”
Josh Andrews was left out at Wimbledon due to fitness and the current schedule while Remeao Hutton was also missing from the squad after the Colchester match.
Bonner said: “(Josh) worked his socks off (in training before Wimbledon) and trained really hard, along with the others that missed out. The turnaround can come quite quickly for all of them, I'm sure.”
League 2 table
While Bonner got the response he wanted at Wimbledon in terms of effort he knows points are needed too.
The Gills slipped to 14th in the table after Tuesday’s New Year’s Day results - now seven points off the play-off places and nine away from the top three.
Bonner said: The performance was much improved from Boxing Day. I liked the intensity in the organisation and the effort that we played with, much better in that sense.
“I'll always stick up for them when they give everything and they fight and have a right go, they chase and they show some personality and some intensity in their performance, which they did.
“They responded in the right way but we needed to try and get a result off the back of the last one. You don't want to go back-to-back defeats, obviously.
“In a period where we've been winning a couple, losing a couple, winning a couple, we've just got to hang on to the coattails of all those teams while we're improving.
“The promotion race has got about 18 teams in it and will have probably until the end of February, early March.”
Bromley are one point better off than the Gills, sitting in 12th place ahead of tonight’s match.
