More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
Brandon Hanlan is out to sink Sunderland again when Gillingham visit the Stadium of Light.
Hanlan’s extra-time goal gave the Gills a 1-0 victory when the sides met in an FA Cup first-round replay at Priestfield last November.
And he’d dearly love to score on Saturday as Steve Evans’ side bid to close an eight-point gap to the Mackems in the race for a League 1 play-off spot.
Gillingham are unbeaten in three games against the Black Cats this season, with the FA Cup meetings followed by a 1-0 league success at Priestfield, so Hanlan and his team-mates travel with no fear.
“Every game, we’ve put in a good performance against them,” said the Gills striker.
“We’ve beaten them twice on the bounce and drawn with them as well so it will be a good game.
“They’ll want to beat us this time around and obviously they’re pushing for the play-offs as well.
“They’ll definitely be a bit wary of us because they know how we play and they know we’re a hardworking team.
“It was a good buzz knocking them out of the FA Cup, seeing as the goal was in extra-time as well.
“It was 0-0 for so long and to get the winning goal, I was happy with that.
“I scored up there in the league last season, too. We lost that game but it’s a good place to score because the stadium’s very nice and they’ve always got a lot of fans.”
Hanlan is hoping Gillingham can silence the home crowd and start another good run following the end of their 15-match unbeaten record against AFC Wimbledon last weekend.
He said: “It’s always good for the away team if their fans are starting to turn a bit because it gives us a bit more impetus to keep attacking and keep up the pressure.
“That’s obviously what we’re going to try and do because we want to win the game.
“I don’t think anyone expected us to be where we are in the table. We went 15 games unbeaten, I know a lot of them were draws but at least we weren’t losing.
“It’s not every team in the league that goes on a run like that and it was good while it lasted.
“Of course, we’d have liked it to carry on but it was one of those games last week that didn’t go for us.
“The run’s over but we could pick up another run now.”
Hanlan has seven goals to his name this season.
The first six came at Priestfield with the forward breaking his away duck by scoring the injury-time winner in Gills’ 3-2 victory at Blackpool last month.
He’s started the last five games, having initially lost his place when Gillingham signed John Akinde, and is aiming to take his goal tally into double figures.
He said: “I like to play every game but obviously there’s good players around me as well. There’s four strikers so there’s always competition.
“I’ve just got to keep my levels up and keep doing what I do on the pitch and hopefully I can play every game.
“To be fair, the goals haven’t really been flowing as much as I would like but in football you’re not going to score every week.
“As long as I keep on pushing, keep on grafting, I feel like I could get one and then two.
“There’s definitely chances I should have put away in various games but you can’t think about that.
“The chances will come if you get in the right positions, it’s just about that final product.
“Once I get that into my game and start putting away every chance I get, I feel I’ll be in a much better space.
“Everyone thinks, ‘oh, he should have scored that’ but it’s not that easy.
“Hopefully I can get double figures. I don’t see why not. I’ll be pushing for that and I feel like it’s very reachable.”
